Make You Feel My Love
by SiriusUntiltheVeryEnd
Summary: Final Chapter to 'Rumor Has It,' and 'Don't you Remember' "Here's the thing," Rose began furiously, her face set. "I lost him once, I thought I was going to lose him twice, but I won't lose him again."
1. Breathe Again

**July 6th 2029**

Scorpius was taken aback when he woke up in a room, tied to a bed, in nothing but his boxers. His first instinct was to break free of the hold, but whoever roped him up did a proficient job. After several failed attempts Scorpius didn't even manage to loosen the hold. He tried to think back to how the hell he could have gotten in this position. For a brief, fleeting second he thought maybe Rose had put him in this situation. But that hope died viciously as he gray eyes looked around the dingy, unused guest room. He knew Rose would never leave him in this dirty of a room. His obsessive need for order was already gnawing at him more and more as he was trapped there.

As he looked around, he felt his brittle chin scratch his shoulder. Frowning, he remembered he had just shaved the day before. There was no reason in the world that his facial hair should be that long. It was almost as if he'd gone two days without shaving. That couldn't be right. But his stomach was completely empty and his mouth was dry.

The last thing he could remember was leaving Rose to go find James. He was looking in his flat…and then he couldn't remember anything else. There did seem to be a bump on his head…

Before he could call out to find out exactly what the hell was happening, Rachel Levitt walked through the door and sat on the edge of the bed. Her long blonde hair was perfect as it flowed down long past her chest.

"Rachel?" He croaked in surprise.

"Hello Scorpius. I hate that we have to meet again in this way," She shrugged, feigning sadness. "But after your little girlfriend and most of her family survived the last strike, I'm afraid we are here again."

He furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. "But you…you helped us."

"I did, to give up my Wizard's debt to Albus and Rose, but that debt is gone now so I have absolutely no loyalty to either one of them."

"Albus is dead."

There was a flash of emotion in her eyes, just a flash, but then it was gone. She returned to her collected exterior.

"Yes well, he is a Potter. That was bound to happen eventually."

"What do you want?" He snapped, sensing the danger he was in.

"I don't want anything."

"Then why am I here?!"

Rachel frowned. "Because they want to hurt you."

"Who are they?!"

She didn't answer. Rachel stood up and left the room.

"WHO ARE THEY?!"

* * *

**August 17 2029**

_Today marks the sixth week that Auror Scorpius Malfoy, age 24, has been missing. Sources say that his disappearance is not linked to any cases he was working and is more likely to be related to the recent breakout in Azkaban. His family, previously a prominent pureblooded family, has swayed far from the dark prestige it once held. So the question is whether it was perhaps an old enemy of Draco Malfoy that has captured his beloved only son?_

_Scorpius Malfoy lived alone in a two bedroom flat, but it was heavily rumored that his girlfriend, Auror Rose Weasley, daughter of Hermione Granger and the deceased Auror Ron Weasley and niece of Head Auror Harry Potter, was about to become his fiancée. Ms. Weasley has given no comment to the prophet, but those close to the twenty-four year old insist that they were headed for the altar. One friend of Rose's even mentioned, 'they were soul mates.' _

_Although it's no secret that Draco Malfoy has done a great deal of damage to the Death Eater community, could it have actually been the on again off again relationship with one Rose Weasley that signed Scorpius' death sentence?_

Astoria Malfoy frowned, an expression that made her beautiful face crease, revealing her age. Taking the Daily Prophet in her hand, she walked into her husband's study with a heavy heart.

"What is it?" He asked softly, looking up at his wife.

She threw the Daily Prophet down at the desk and waited for him to finish reading it. "Rose is going to kill her."

"That is hardly a concern-"

"She's on edge Draco! Don't you see that? Weeks without hearing a scrap of news about Scorpius has sent her over the edge!"

His steel eyes locked on his wife. "But that's not-"

"He was going to propose." She stated flatly, crossing her tan arms. "Now I know you have always had an opinion of her because of her family, but as soon as Scorpius bought that ring she became our family too. She will go to the depths of hell for my son, and that means we will do the same for her."

Draco Malfoy opened his mouth to retort something, but after one look at his wife he quickly changed his mind. "What do you want me to do? I have every contact I have looking for him. Even the Weasley girl has done everything she can to find him…I can't stop this reporter from writing whatever she wants. There's nothing I can do."

"Her name is Rose, and what I'm asking is that…" Astoria's big hazel eyes filled with tears as her body shook. "What I'm asking is that you support her, because if anyone will find him it will her…I need her to find him…I need-" Her speech died as she was overwhelmed by tears.

Draco Malfoy rose from his desk, his receding hair pushed back as he moved to embrace his wife. He knew she needed to put her faith somewhere. She needed believe that someone would find their son and bring him home. At first she believed the Aurors would do it, but after several failed ventures her trust in them had died. Now the only person she believed would fight as hard as she and her husband would to find Scorpius was Rose. It took a few weeks for her to see it, but once you've been around someone enough you begin to see the core of who they are. And Astoria saw that it was literally killing Rose Weasley that Scorpius was out there somewhere and she couldn't find him.

Soothing his wife, Draco rested his arms on her shoulders and cradled her face into his chest as he rubbed her back. Draco felt numb. At first he wanted to just inform the authorities and figure out a plan, somewhere to put his excess energy. But now, weeks later he had nowhere to put his raw grief, so he did the next best thing, he repressed it.

* * *

In a dark London alleyway that the deep heat of the summer seemed to avoid, Rose Weasley walked into an abandoned building. Her red hair was tied back in a tight braid bringing out her pale skin and freckles. As she moved quietly through the building, her face was rigid and completely focused. Her face had aged considerably in the past two months. The lines in her face were more pronounced and her eyes were colder than before.

It took a moment for her to get to the floor she needed and when she did, she found her Azkaban escapee right where she expected him to be. This wasn't the usual target. He was a high level security risk, and was on the most wanted list, but Rose didn't hesitate for a second. She was the youngest Auror to be at her standing. Though she had little seniority, in the past two months she'd nabbed countless murderers and convicts to the point where she'd been promoted, twice. This was her life now, and she'd become ruthlessly good at it.

The man, Luke Ripley, had murdered six witches after robbing them blind. He was 34, tall, with dark hair and very suave. Ripley knew exactly how to talk a woman out of all of her savings, but after running into Rose twice, once in prison and once escaping from custody, he had learned she wasn't that type of woman. That wasn't the case at first. Initially, he thought maybe he could work her into getting him out, but after seeing how thoroughly aloof and unfeeling she was, he stopped bothering. Then when she almost caught him, as she was the only one smart enough to figure out his plot, he began to loathe her.

"Weasley," Luke Ripley snarled as he turned around. "If you know what's good for you, you'll turn around and walk out."

She grinned an unpleasant grin. "I've never really done what's good for me."

"I've heard. So is catching me another suicide mission?" He asked, not bothering to grab his wand.

"I doubt catching you is that dangerous," She said, circling him like a hawk. "We've caught you once, I'm sure I can do it again."

He sneered as he looked down at her. "You can try."

"Yes, I can."

There was a beat of silence. In that silence all that was heard were cars driving by and summertime bugs chatting and then there was a loud thunderous crash that was perfectly on time. For only an instant Ripley shifted to see what it was, but in that split second Rose had him disarmed and caged in robes.

A year ago she would have been victorious. Six months ago she would have been excited beyond belief. Two months ago she would have grinned so hard her face would have hurt. But now, at this moment, she barely cared.

"Who was with you?!" Ripley cried out in shock and disgust looking around the room, waiting for her partner to show up.

Rose gave him a sad smile. "No one. I set those fireworks up before I came in here."

As she transported him to the Ministry, she knew he was figuring her out, that she in fact didn't have a partner and hadn't been assigned one since Scorpius was taken. No one wanted to work with someone that had no regard for her own life. They wanted someone brave, committed, and a good worker, but not someone whose entire life had become their work.

After successively dropping Ripley in lockup, she apparated to Lauren's flat. She had promised her she would check in and have some tea. Rose didn't understand why Lauren bothered seeing her at all. They only made each other more depressed than they were before they saw each other. Still, the need for the label of friendship lingered in the air so Rose went.

Answering the door, Lauren looked incredibly worn. Her blonde hair was swept off her face by one of her old Hogwarts headbands. Rose almost smiled at the nostalgia of it all, but she didn't.

"Did you see?"

"See what?"

Lauren pulled her sweater farther over her shoulder as she handed Rose the day's Daily Prophet. Rose walked into Lauren's flat, her eyes digging into the paper with perfect distain. Once she saw the headline, her already darkened face tint red with anger at the words.

Rose ripped up the Daily prophet to shreds and chucked it into Lauren's fireplace. Lauren moved to her couch, curled up into a tight ball and eyed her best friend; she looked remarkably like a cat at that angle. She was trying to be considerate to Rose, but she knew, as any friend would know, that any effort she made would be worthless. It was all good in theory, but for a while now Rose had been long past listening to anyone.

"Can I get her fired?" Rose asked with a dark tone that she now used with casual everyday speech. "I mean I have to be able to get her fired, right?"

"I doubt it. It's not against the law to write guesses."

Rose chewed her lip bitterly and then looked at Lauren. "How are you?"

"I'm fine," Lauren lied. "We've been broken up for three weeks now so I'm through the worst of it."

"I still think it's a bloody waste. Why did you guys break up in the first place?"

Lauren pushed her blonde hair out of her face and her jaw tightened. "I'd rather not talk about it. I understand you're furious…because you're always furious now, but my past relationship is not something I'd like to relive."

"Fine."

"Aren't you supposed to be headed for a meeting right now?"

Rose swore as she checked her watch. "Merlin…you're right. I'm sorry, I should have been here earlier. I didn't expect my paperwork to take so long. I'll see you tomorrow." She paused, her face softening for a minute. "I'm sorry…I'm not trying to dump any of this on you…"

"It's fine Ro. Go to work."

Rose felt a wave of guilt rush up from her spine and creep up her throat as she looked at her disheveled best friend. She knew Lauren was broken and hurt from her break up with Hugo, though she'd be the last person in the entire world to admit it. They had ended things on uneasy terms and it was clear that neither one of them were really okay with how things were. Rose didn't know if it was because they both still had feelings for each other or because they had never really got closure, but either way she couldn't really care. On some level she cared, in the same way she'd always care about the welfare of kittens and puppies, but right now feeling anything other than anger hurt too much to process.

She'd been broken too badly to be repaired; now she just functioned as a part of society. She went to work, she ate, and she slept. Rose did everything she was supposed to do. For the rest of her life she could do this, helping others, doing the right thing, but taking joy in nothing. Until she got some kind of closure on Scorpius, she'd always just coast through life, starring at unlocked windows and doors, wondering if today was the day he'd wander back through. And until that day, she'd never give up on him or stop looking for him.

For a while she convinced herself it would be different if the situation had been different. If they'd had years of happiness together, if he'd died, or if they'd simply broken up, it wouldn't be as bad as this. The worst part was the lack of choice. Neither of them had chosen this so she found it impossible to walk away from.

At first people of all walks of life were coming up to her saying they were sorry, saying they understood. She wanted to slap them. She wanted to strike them down with every fiber of her being until they truly felt as cut open and raw as she felt every single moment of the day. But she didn't, because in spite of herself, she still had hope. Hope that each day would be the day that she heard something, saw something, felt something that told her that he was alive, that his heart was still beating. But every day came and went, and she heard not a single thing. There was not a trace of evidence to let that little piece of hope rise in her. So the hope began to erode, like an ocean does to the land, until the land is worn away.

Arriving back at the office, she walked through the Auror security and went to her desk. Before, her friends, colleagues and relatives used to visit her, but they didn't bother anymore. They knew it only would set her off.

Grabbing her paperwork, Rose headed into the conference room for her next assignment.

"Auror Weasley, you will assist Aurors Roberts and Andrews on this mission," Her uncle told her coldly as if he was speaking to a disobedient inferior officer he had no personal relationship with. "Then you will all report back to me when this mission is completed."

The three Aurors nodded and planned to meet by the elevators in fifteen minutes. Knowing that the other two Aurors probably didn't want to be anywhere near her, Rose took her time meeting them. She decided to get a cup of coffee before she left to waste some time. When she got there she saw Roberts and Andrews and moved to turn around when she felt herself being pulled into their conversation.

Rose caught one of them saying, "You know Potter's been a right prick for the past two months."

Another responded in a more sympathetic voice. "Well his kid _was _killed."

Her whole body shook with uncontrollable rage and it took every ounce of what little self-control she had left not to go into the next room and throttle the two men's throats.

"It has to be worse for Weasley though. You know they've sent her on almost fifty missions this month? I think they're trying to keep her busy."

The rude one said, "More like they don't want her around. You've seen her lately. She looks like one wrong look from someone and she'll rip their head off. Though I'm sure I could take her."

The other man laughed. "I'd pay a lot of galleons to see that."

"Don't get me wrong though, with all that raw rage she's got going on under those tight little outfits. I wouldn't mind shagging-"

Rose walked in, with an emotionless smirk on her face. "Lloyd, I would really love it if you would get me a coffee before we go. Do you mind?"

Lloyd Roberts was so shocked that he jumped and his brown eyebrows disappeared behind his forgettable brown hair. Jake Andrews snickered, flashing a smirk of his own at his colleague's face.

Lloyd nodded. "Uh…Yeah sure."

"Thank you so much Lloyd," Rose told him without an ounce of warmth in her voice. She moved to stand next to Jake.

Jake gave her a knowing smirk. "You did that on purpose."

"You have no proof," She said, letting out a very small laugh. Pausing, she shook herself and gave him a look.

"What?" He asked, raising his hands in innocence.

Blinking, she rubbed her eyes. "Nothing, sorry."

What was wrong with her? He'd said something funny and she'd laughed, but at this point she was so crazy she didn't understand herself anymore. Was she mad because he'd made her laugh? Or was she mad because she didn't know why she did?

Jake Andrews was two years older than she was. He was taller, with rich brown hair and deep blue eyes. A few months ago Rose remembered her coworker Jade saying he was the hottest guy in the department, and Rose could see why. Andrews had this easy smile and an every-man attitude that fit him in with any crowd. About two weeks earlier he had taken two days off of work. He had said it was a family emergency, but Rose didn't buy it. She always thought it was an unscheduled vacation, but never said anything because it wasn't her problem.

"You okay?" Andrews asked, sincerity beaming from his deep blue eyes.

Rose forced on a smile. "I'm fine."

"Glad to see you can still lie," he said, clapping a hand on her shoulder.

"Who says I'm lying?"

He snorted and shook his head. Then he lowered his lips to a centimeter away from her ear. "I did."

A shiver went down her spine as he walked away. It wasn't his voice that made her nerves stand on end, it was the way he had said it. There was a confidence in it that Rose hadn't been expecting. She watched Jake walk over to his desk with his coffee and grab his cloak. Roberts came into view with a coffee for her and an uncomfortable smile.

"Here Rose." He handed her the coffee.

She forced a smile on her face. "Thank you Lloyd. Shall we go then?"

When Lloyd looked the opposite way Rose dumped out her coffee and headed into the elevator. She was never a big fan of coffee and she didn't trust that Roberts wouldn't spit in it or do something to it. Roberts and Andrews stood in front of her, blocking her from the front of the elevator. Shielded from sight Rose let out a silent slow shuddering breath. A slow trickle of sadness passed through her. This time it had nothing to do with Scorpius and everything to do with Albus. She and her cousin used to plan times when they could meet on the elevator so they could get some cousin time in. It was ridiculous how covert they felt about the whole thing. Back then they'd laugh when people noticed the regularity of it. But now the elevator felt empty and lifeless with only the memory of what had been.

After work, Rose went to the cemetery where her father and cousin were buried. She cleaned the area up, added some flowers and then just sat there in the grass. Tears didn't come. All of her tears were gone. She didn't need to cry anymore. It was a purpose that she seemed to have outgrown. As she sat, her knees curled up into her chest, her head on her knees, she looked at the tombstones distantly. Out of the corner of her eye she saw someone going to another tombstone, but she didn't bother to look at them. If she had she might have noticed they were watching her.

But she didn't know, and there was no way she could have known, that it wasn't some stranger; it was her cousin, James.

Two months earlier he had made a promise to find Scorpius and he said he wouldn't return until he succeeded. His beard grown in from his time abroad and he had a few more scars, but he finally had an answer for his cousin. Walking towards Rose, he finally had an answer for her, but he knew it was not what she wanted to hear.

* * *

**Authors Note:**

_Thank you cddn for editing this! I'd be lost without you!_


	2. The Fighter

**July 26****th**** 2029**

Scorpius let out a sharp breath of relief, as the cruciatus curse was taken off of him. His forehead wasn't gracefully glistening with sweat, it was thickly sticking to him, draining him of what little water he had left in his body. Shattered breaths rattled around inside of him as he crawled onto his back.

He didn't know what day it was, or what time, he was even having trouble remembering the year. They'd been tortured for so long he didn't know what it was like to wake up and not be in constant pain. All he wanted was to figure out what the wanted. If he knew what they wanted, then maybe he could work out a way to get it to them. Anything to make them stop setting the very core of his bones on fire.

This man, the man that he'd come realize was in charge, was short with pitch black eyes and the darkest hair Scorpius had ever seen. He seemed to radiate a kind of madness that only grew with each encounter. Like he was waiting for the moment Scorpius would wake up and be completely broken. Though he didn't know why this was happening to him or even sometimes who he was, he knew that point was growing nearer and nearer with everyday.

"I'm not going to ask you single question. You want to know why?" The man sneered. Then he lowered himself until he was right in front of Scorpius. His breath scorched Scorpius's already boiling face.

"Because no one is ever going to find you when we are done with you. You are going to be beaten every day until we break you, and not just your body either, no…. We are going to break your spirit. So by the time we kill your half-blooded bitch, you won't even have it in you to stop it."

Half-blooded bitch? He wondered distantly who that was. His mind kept grasping at the figment of an idea and then as soon as it grew close enough for him to grab it was gone. Scorpius's eyes, so light in the moonlight, were unfocused and confused.

A loud laugh sounded in the dungeon Scorpius was being held in. Scorpius shifted very slowly on the grime and hay covered floor he was laying on.

"I don't know why I bother to talk to you. You're already gone."

"Why…" Scorpius groaned and found he couldn't continue.

The man said, "Do you remember your name?"

Scorpius frowned and after a few moments he shook his head. "No…I don't."

"Well this will be fun…" The man sneered.

* * *

**August 17 2029**

Rose looked up and gasped when she saw James Potter walking towards her. Before she could say a word, she threw her arms around him and hugged him firmly. He kept waiting for her to release him so he could give her the bad news. But the longer they stood there the tighter her grip on him became. She couldn't stand to release him for even a moment for fear that he, like every other male her life would be ripped from her.

After a moment James wrapped his arms around his dearest cousin, and saw there were tears on his shirt. He didn't know if she was just happy to see her or if she had just been through so much that even the sight of him broke her.

"Hey," He said to her as he rubbed her back soothingly. "I'm okay."

She pulled back sniffling, her blue eyes big and puffy from crying. "When…When I didn't hear from you..."

"Hey," He tipped her face up and forced her to look him in the eye. "I've got two arms two legs, and I'm still dead sexier than every member of our family."

An unwilling laugh brushed her lips as he grinned. "Prat."

"Yeah," His grin faded as disappointed loomed in his eyes. "You're going to be mad at me."

"Why? What went wrong?" Her voice grew with panic.

"I found where they were holding him, but he wasn't there…"

"How do you know he was even being held there?" She crossed her arms, as she bit the side of her lip.

"I interrogated one of the guards and after some…coaxing-"

"Coaxing?" Rose's eyebrows rose in criticism. "James you're an Auror, please tell me you didn't break the law."

James had gone through a lot in the past few months, losing his brother was something it had taken him leaving to get through. Here all he saw was his little brothers face wherever he had gone anywhere around London. Before then he was never without a joke or a grin on his face, but times had made him grow more serious.

"Rose, I wasn't authorized to leave. Anything I did was off the books."

Rose felt a wave of guilt. "I'm sorry. I didn't intend for you to get in to any trouble…"

"It's Scorpius." James shrugged, his words gaining much weight.

"So, what did you find out?"

"He was there for almost a month. They almost drove him insane." James's voice grew quiet. "But the guard didn't know what happened to him. He seemed to think they moved him, but he was unsure…He seemed to be confounded."

Rose had been holding on, to this flimsy sheet of hope. Her hands dug into the silky edges, making her palms bleed as she refused to let go. But at the sound of this news, or lack there of, she unintentionally let go to what little she'd been holding onto. Her little face, looked so incredibly vulnerable. She looked not like a strong, independent 24 year old girl, but a lost little girl.

An unforgiving wind brushed through the cemetery, swiping some strands of Rose's frizzy red hair into her distant face.

Her eyes started brimming with searing tears. Before she even spoke, her throat began to shake. "James…I don't want you to think I don't appreciate everything you've done. Because honestly you've gone above and beyond anything…" Rose's voice weakened in sincerity.

"But I need a straight answer James. Either he's alive or he's dead. If he's dead, fine. Just fucking tell me. I will set up the funeral, I will tell his parents. I will …" Her hands began to shake, which grew to her legs and then finally her face. "I will figure out some way to get through it okay? I don't know how. I don't have the slightest clue, but I will figure it out. I'll just…" The tears came quick and steadfast. "Just give me a straight fucking answer. Just something to go on."

The breath that had been lingering her throat caught onto the side of her throat and slid down the rest of the way uneasily. That was the way her life seemed to be going. No matter what she did, no matter how much she adapted she just always seemed to be a step closer to the edge. Over that cliff was a freefall of unyielding depression. And she was trying to hold onto herself, she was. Her whole life didn't revolve around a man. It was just that she'd been through so much, if she lost Scorpius…

She knew in ten years she would have gotten through it, but now, she couldn't see how that ever could be true.

"I'm sorry Rose," James apologized, his voice low and full of regret. "I don't know what else to do."

She nodded, but she was trembling too hard to give him a verbal response.

"I'm going to go check in at work…I'll see you tomorrow."

Once again she nodded. This time she turned away. Even though he'd already seen that she was crying, she couldn't handle looking at him right then. He thought about hugging her or just staying with her for a few minutes, but James knew Rose better than anybody, and he knew that right then she needed to be alone.

"I'm sorry Rose." He whispered again before apparating away.

She fell to the ground, bruising her knees as she let out a strangled sob. Rose wanted to punch, kick, hurt anything, anybody, just to stop the deep and bitter agony that was spreading across her heart. She wished he'd never came back. She wished she'd never fallen in love with him. She'd wished she'd never been born. But all these wishes were faint and meant absolutely nothing. Her thoughts were vicious and full of shattered heartbreak. The only clear thought on her mind was that she had to get to Scorpius's flat.

It was dusty and quite warm in Scorpius's absence. She'd been coming here every once in a while since he'd been taken. In the back of her mind she wished with everything she had that he would walk in. Her deepest desire was for him to come in and complain about the mess, to be so flustered about the disarray his flat had been left in that he would instantly start cleaning. Rose would have given anything to see that again. But as she stood there she heard nothing, not creaking floorboard, nor a door swinging open, not even the beat of her own heart.

Tossing her wand onto the bedside table, Rose curled up into his bed. It still smelled like him, which only made her heart hurt more. Eventually, after her crying became so violent it began to physically hurt her, she emerged herself in the bed like a protective cocoon, unwilling and unable to leave.

_Her pulse was racing as ropes winded around her binding her down to the ground. Her red hair stuck to the sides of her face, as she looked out again at Scorpius. He was standing in front of a man Rose had never seen before but still somehow looked familiar to her. _

_"Isn't this what it all boils down to anyway?" He sneered as he loosely brandished his wand at them. "The fact that you two refuse to stay away from each other no matter what it does to you? Others might call it admirable, but it sounds stupid to me. I mean she's fit, but really Malfoy you gave up everything for a woman? You're pathetic."_

* * *

The next morning, Rose's alarm went off quietly next to her. At first she wasn't quite sure where she was. When it hit her, she felt like she'd been punched. Still, she forced herself up. She had never called a day off work in her life. Though today would be the most reasonable day to do so given the state of things, she didn't. If she stayed here she wouldn't eat and if she didn't eat, she would never move. Using a strength she didn't have, Rose made herself get up.

She told herself to just sit up, then stand up, then change her clothes. Everything was step by step. Anything past that was too much for her. She was halfway out the door when she caught a look at herself. Her face was gaunt, and almost lifeless. It pained her, but she didn't know what she could do to improve that. The only thing she could think to do was to keep moving. Malice and coldness hardened around her heart, like a protective incasing. That seemed to be the only way she could survive.

As soon as she arrived at work, she felt numbness took over her until she couldn't think or feel anything. Once she got to her desk she saw her cousin James sitting at his regular desk, there didn't seem to be any repercussions put on him. He did say he was leaving, but still it wasn't authorized. It seemed for once his surname did him some good. She almost smiled at him, but she didn't.

In the distance she saw her uncle coming towards her. The man had barely spoken three words to her since Albus's death and every single one of those words had been work related. It seemed as if today she was going to add at least a sentence or two more.

"Rose," He spoke briskly, not looking her in the eye. "Come with me."

Frowning, she stood and followed him a few rows down to Jake Andrews desk.

"Andrews here is your new partner."

"What?"

Her Uncle said, "You've been without a partner for over a month. It's regulation to reassign you."

Rose didn't even look at him or at Andrews. "Fine."

Then without another word to either one of them she walked away.

It was rude, and incredibly inconsiderate, but she was going through too much to handle this. She couldn't help the growing feeling of paranoia that was growing on her like a three-foot leach, sucking the life out of her until she became dizzy and saw nothing but enemies everywhere. She was furious.

Rose knew she was at work. She knew she should be in control. She knew that her credibility and any respect her employers had in her would be lost if she stepped even a toe out of line. Rose was quite aware of her circumstances, but she had reached the breaking point. Her uncle treated her like garbage to the point where he reassigned her without a single hint of warning. He even went far enough to trap her into this by telling her in front of Andrews.

Her very veins shook with rage, as she clenched and unclenched her palms. Slamming against her ribs violently, her heart grew more and more bitter. Setting her face, Rose grabbed her wand and stormed through the aisle way to her uncle's office. Her eyes were set; she was running on pure adrenaline. Gone was any sense of control. She wanted to do something, anything to feel like she was doing something. They could fire her, they could kick her out, she didn't care. Nothing mattered anymore.

James thankfully looked up from his desk just in time. As soon as he saw her face, he instinctively dropped his quill and leapt to his feet.

"Come on Rose," James physically took her by the arm. "You don't want to do this."

"Oh really?!" She practically screamed. "Because I think I do."

"Rose, think about what you're doing-"

"I am! For the first time in a while I just don't care. I'm not going to sit anymore and take it-" She began fueled by growing hate.

James didn't let her finish. In one quick swift movement he threw her over his shoulder and walked her flailing body out of the office. Everyone around stared but they both didn't care. Finally when James reached the filing closet he opened the door and threw her in.

"Are you insane? Are you trying to lose your job?"

"Don't you understand? Don't you get it? I'm-going-insane!" She cried out unable to hold it in any longer. "I can't do this anymore! Any of it! I thought I could! I thought I was tough, but I'm not…" Her voice broke and then she was crying, "I'm weak, and I can't fight this anymore. I can't James…I just can't."

His face grew very somber as his own eyes looked on the verge of tears. He stepped forward and put his hands on her shoulders. His voice was soft and earnest, "You don't have to do anything Rose. If you want to quit do it. If you want to leave the country do it. Anything you want to do, do it…Just please do something."

"I don't know what to do," She sobbed not able to look him in the eye. "What am I supposed to do?"

"You need to stop doing what you think you're supposed to do Rose. It's killing you. You need to do what you need to do." His grip on her became firm. "Search inside yourself, you know what that is."

The answer wasn't clear, but Rose knew where to start. She had to cut off the parts of herself that were dying. It was just too hard for her to keep holding on. She would never truly give up on Scorpius, but there was nothing more she could do.

James took her home and she wrote a note saying she was taking the week off. There was not the slightest chance of denying it now. Rose couldn't be at work right then. She needed what small amount of closure she could get in the only way she knew how.

She'd looked everywhere for him, and done everything she could to find him. But she was left with nothing but this loaded box that she couldn't bare to open.

Her fingers rubbed the velvet covering feeling completely destroyed by it.

The box said so much and meant even more to her. It was a box full of the possibilities of what they could have had. A box she couldn't cope with owning any longer. In order to survive, to be able to wake up every morning without hating herself and everyone else around her, she needed to be as far away from that box as humanly possible.

So she knocked on the Malfoy mansion right after sunset. The decision she was making was rumbling around her stomach making her anxious and nauseous at the same time. In her hearts she couldn't believe she was doing this, but in the same instance she knew that she had to do this.

A small house elf named Firny answered the door, her face lit up with recognition upon seeing Rose's face. "Madame Weasley?"

"Hi," She echoed hollowly, "I'm here to see Mr. Malfoy."

"He's in his study Firny can take you," She offered, her large brown eyes filling with sympathy.

Rose nodded and followed the kind little elf.

As she walked portraits and photos of young Scorpius grinned up at her. Every time she saw another one it was like breaking a window in an abandoned house, everyone could see the damage, but no one had the power to stop it.

Draco Malfoy was sitting at his desk when they entered, he looked a mixture of disgruntled and surprised at her presence. Her courage was slipping, any moment she might throw this whole idea out and just crawl into her bed away from everything. So before he could ask why she was there she acted.

She handed the box to Scorpius's father, her eyes filled with burning tears. "I can't hold onto this."

"I don't understand," He asked in a bewildered tone. "It's yours."

"No it's not. He never gave it to me. It's not mine."

"Draco darling-" Astoria said as she walked into the room, but as soon as her eyes caught onto Rose her gorgeous face turned to confusion. "Rose?"

"I can't keep this." She insisted.

Astoria frowned, her heart shaped face filled with sympathy. "Rose-"

"No," Rose choked out a sob. "I can't hold onto this. Maybe he meant to give it to me and maybe it was going to be mine, but he didn't and I don't know when we are going to find him, but he might not be the man that wanted to marry me when I find him…. And until we know I want you to keep it."

"Okay." Mr. Malfoy took the box. "I'll hold onto it until he gets back."

Rose let out a pent up sigh of relief. "Thank you."

Then she turned and walked out.

**July 30****th**** 2029**

Blood, so much blood was spilled. Scorpius should have been dead. His body laid flat on the floor, still. There he was wearing nothing but his underwear. His back was perfectly muscular and exposed to display the vivid scarlet lashes on his back. His head was cocked to the side and his bruised hands clutched his battered ribs. His skin was boiling and his bright blonde hair slicked back from sweat. There was no sign of life in him other than the hard throbbing pounding of his heart.

The door shook and swung opened. He didn't move or even flinch when someone came in. Or when they kicked him in the leg. It wasn't that he didn't feel it. Scorpius had just adapted to it in a way that was almost inhuman.

"Are you guys even sure he's alive?" The guard called as he kneeled down right next to Scorpius. Pulling his wand out of his pocket he pointed it at Scorpius's throat.

Scorpius's eyes cracked open, a rattling breath left his lips and then his legs swung out of nowhere knocking one of his captors over. The man's wand dropped and Scorpius snatched it.

Pain was his companion, he grew to not fear it but expect it. Though his body was broken, he still held onto his survival instincts.

He whispered a spell and ropes appeared out of nowhere to wrap the man up. Scorpius didn't know how he knew the spell or how long it worked. All he knew was he had to get out of there.

Panting, Scorpius crawled out of the room, and then managed by some miracle to make it out into the hallway to a door that led out. He was in agony, his body was a weight anchored to the floor making him drag his wrecked limbs across the dirty floor. Two guards saw him and shifted to move towards him. Scorpius raised his wand and whispered a spell that knocked them both off their feet. Boldly, Scorpius pushed himself out the door, into the bright glaring sunlight of the day.


	3. Say All I Need

**August 20****th**** 2029**

Rose stayed huddled in her bed. She still hadn't moved an inch out of her brother's guest bedroom and today was the day she was going to do so.

There was the most disgust shirt in world lying on her bed. For the past few days, instead of getting up and getting a tissue, Rose simply used the worn striped shirt. After a day or so the ugly snot invested shirt became her only comfort in the entire world. It didn't judge her. It didn't cruelly remind her of everything she was without. It didn't tell her how good she still had it.

No one had to say it but after a certain point she could see it was all on their faces. Albus wasn't able to keep his life. Rose did. She got to keep her family, her friends, and though it hung by a thread she still had it, which was more than Albus and Scorpius did.

She didn't care if she had no right to be unhappy. It wasn't something she could control anymore. The only thing she did know was she had to leave this room. Her goal was to cry until there was nothing left, and she'd done the best of her ability to do that. Now she just had to get up, and move on as well as she could.

Before she moved out into the kitchen, she took a bath. Lying there, completely vulnerable she let out shuddering breaths. Rose fell under the surface of the water. Under water away from everything was the only place she felt safe. For a split second she stayed under the water for too long. A rush of adrenaline, shot up through her forcing her body up and out of the water.

_"Get-a-grip,_" She whispered to herself. "_You can't just live underwater_."

"Rose?!" Her brother called through the door, his voice strained with noticeable worry.

She laughed at him, her cheeks hurting. "I'm kind of busy bathing Hugo."

"Oh…Alright…I just…I didn't hear anything for awhile."

"I'm fine Hugo. I'll meet you in the kitchen in a bit."

As soon as Hugo walked away she snorted and rubbed her face with her pruney fingers. "Merlin…Even he thinks I'm mad …ugh." Rose let out a low breath, before pulling herself out of the bathtub and throwing on some sweats.

"Eat," Hugo ordered as soon as she entered the kitchen pushing a bowl of cereal towards her.

Humoring him, she took a large spoonful and chewed it down generously. "Satisfied?"

"Yes."

"I'm going to go looking for a flat today." She announced before getting another spoonful and taking a bite.

"Looking like that?" He asked before he could stop himself.

Rose let out a small laugh, the sounding foreign in her own ears. "No…Do I look that bad?"

"I never said that." Hugo answered evasively, his eyes betraying him. "Don't do that thing where you put the words in my mouth."

Raising her hand in innocence, she scoffed. "I didn't say anything, your face did."

"Oh!" Hugo reached over finding an eyelash on her cheek. He held it out to her like they did when they were kids. "Make-a-wish!"

"I don't want to Hugo."

"Come on," He grinned, attempting to tease with her.

A shadow passed over her face. "Don't Hugo."

"Come on!"

"You want me to make a wish? I just want to know that he's alive," She told her brother honestly. "That's it. That's all I want…but it seems that no matter how much I want that. It's not going to happen. So I'm going to sit in here, and make myself cry until I can't feel it anymore."

Hugo looked at a loss for words.

"I love you Hugo and I'm honestly trying to get it together. I know mum's owled you all worried about her baby Rose, but I promise I'm doing everything in my power to get myself together. And I'm not trying to hurt you…but that's the truth."

"Rose," Hugo said tipping her face up to face his, "You can stay as long as you want."

"Thanks Hugo." Rose smiled weakly, "But I have to get my own place."

Hugo frowned thoughtfully. "Just bring someone with you."

"I don't need-"

"I know, but what if you need a second opinion on the place?"

Rose could see by the earnest look on Hugo's face that she wasn't going to win. "Fine…I'll see if Lily can take a late lunch. Alright?"

"And if she can't, bring mum. You know she'd love to put her input in." Hugo told her kissing her forehead like their father did when he was alive.

"Fine I will."

Rose changed into her clothes, and found they were baggier than usual. She pushed that thought from her mind and grabbed a quill and some parchment. Then after some considerable hesitation, she owled her mother and asked her if she was free. Though she had intended to choose Lily to come with her, she quickly realized that she couldn't take Lily. Not yet. Lily was sweet and kind, but she was also self involved and harsh. If she didn't approve of how Rose had been acting, today was not the day she wanted to hear it.

Her mother replied quickly and energetically and within the hour she met her down at the cafe down the street.

"Rose," Hermione Weasley, hugged her daughter. "Honey, I've missed you."

Warmth spread through her body the longer she was in her mother's embrace. Her mother was small, but strong and the longer she held onto her the better she felt.

"Now," Her mother whispered pulling away, and pushing her hair away from her face fondly. "What kind flat do you have in mind?"

* * *

**August 27****th**** 2029**

Her things were all boxed up and her bags were packed. She didn't want to leave her brother's flat. There was a consistent comfort there that never seemed to fade, but she needed to go. If she stayed she'd become codependent to the place, unable to walk on her own. Rose needed this.

Somehow in midst of her depression she managed to track down a flat available and go shopping for furniture with her mother. It took longer than she had estimated. To Rose it should have as simple as seeing something and buying it, but she hadn't factored in the fact that all of her previous furniture had actually been Lauren's extra furniture. So it took a considerable amount of time to find things she actually liked. It helped that she brought her mother. Hermione Weasley was quite resourceful, and insightful, she knew her daughters taste well enough to point her in the right direction.

Standing in her jeans, and brown leather jacket, Rose looked at her pouting brother with a smile.

"Hugo," She laughed squishing his cheeks. "Quit looking so sad. You know you will be visiting me all the time."

"Oh I know," He grinned affectionately and tugged his older sister into his arms. "But I kind of liked you moping around, it gave me a project."

Rose scoffed and smacked her brother off her. "You really know how to make me feel better."

"It's what I'm here for."

"What are you up to this week?" Rose asked sitting down on his couch.

Hugo stretched his long fine toned body while yawning. "I have practice all week. We have a game next week. You should come."

"What day?"

"Saturday at 7."

Nodding, Rose shrugged, "I'll be there. I'll go with James."

"Good," Hugo smirked good-naturedly running a hand through the silky hair they didn't share. "He needs to get out."

Flicking her wand, Rose shrunk all of her things so incredibly small that it all molded into a small box that fit in the space in her jean pocket.

"I'll see you later okay?" Rose told him.

Hugo's smile faded, as looked down at her with an unexpected amount of anxiety making her heart turn.

"I'll be okay …" She reassured him softly. "I promise. I'm honestly doing better."

"I know…I just-"

Rose's face became serious. "You aren't dad. It isn't your job to take care of me or to protect me. It's not anyone's job."

"It might not be my job." He said, "But it is someone's job."

Shaking her head, she threw her arms around him and enclosed him in a tight hug. "From now on, it's my job alright?"

"I love you."

"I love you too."

Three hours later, Rose hadn't finished putting away her stuff, she wasn't even close, but she had to go. It was too hot for a jacket so she left it on one of her brand new dinning room chairs and left for a nearby wizard going coffee shop.

The next day she was expected to head back into work, and she finally felt that she was ready to go back. She wasn't over Scorpius and she probably never would be, but she was going to put that aside. If the day came when she did hear another lead on him or found something that could help find him, then she would be equipped to go after him. In the state she'd been she wasn't fit to help anybody.

But before she could get back to work and put the pieces of her life together she had to apologize to Jake Andrews first. So in act that killed her pride and brought out the good manners her mother had instilled in her she asked him to get a late lunch to explain herself. After all, she had no idea how long she was going to end up working with him and he had no doubt had probably formed nasty assumptions of her already. It was best to knock those out of the way and start as fresh as possible.

"Thank you for coming." Rose gave him a very obligatory smile as he sat down across from her.

Leaning forward, he nodded. "What would you like to discuss?"

"I just wanted to clear the air and apologize for any confusion I might have caused." Rose said in a clear concise voice. "I wasn't trying to attack you. _It was_…" She paused shifting in her chair as he stared her dead in the eye. "I apologize if my behavior came off negative in any way and I promise I will be professional from this point on."

Jake wet his lips and nodded, never taking his eyes off her for a second. "I understand."

"Thank you for being respectful." She said in the tone of surprise. "I appreciate that."

"Why do you looked so stunned that I'm respectful?" He asked bluntly, his attitude much more to the point than Rose remembered him being.

"I…" She gaped not sure how to respond. "I just know what people say about me, and…I didn't mean to insult you."

Andrew's face seemed indifferent, but his eyes were guarded and undeviating. "You didn't insult me."

"Okay…" She felt uncomfortable and completely out of her element.

Everyone had been tip toeing around her, but now that Andrews was put up to being Rose's partner it appeared he wasn't going to baby her. She didn't mind it, it was kind of refreshing really, but she was just surprised by it. She always pegged Andrews as two faced, but the man that sat in front of her wasn't but. His deep blue eyes looked her as if he knew everything about her, and yet his face looked liked he didn't know more than the man across the way about her.

"I suppose I'll see you tomorrow then."

"I suppose you will." He responded with a smile that would have charmed half the witches in London. Rose was unphased. She simply grabbed her cloak and apparated out of the pub.

* * *

**August 29****th**** 2029**

Rose threw her body back against a brick building; her breathing was heavy and erratic as hot sweat trickled down her spine and down her very bottom of her back. Her eyes grew wide, as the dark make-up under them smeared and became messy. It didn't matter anymore. They'd already been made. She was going to wait exactly three minutes and then if she didn't hear anything from Andrews she was going to leave. That was the deal they struck when they began this mission.

Their covers were blown from the minute they walked into hotel. The hotel secretary looked at them funny, like she knew something they did not. It bothered her immediately, but she shook it off putting it off as first day back jitters. The concierge couldn't possibly know what they were doing there. They had the perfect alibi after all.

When they drifted into the elevator hand in hand, Rose tensed up. Andrews smirked at her wrapped his arm around her like any husband would his wife. The move was so natural Rose almost forgot it wasn't planned. Once the doors closed, Andrews pulled away and looked at her with concern.

"You alright?"

"Did she seem off to you?" She asked keeping her tone even.

He shook his head, his dark brown hair now a deep auburn color. "She was a bitch, but most of them are."

Rose's eyebrows shot up. "Women or hotel concierges?"

"Both," He teased.

"Yes, I've heard your reputation with women." She nodded curtly.

"What? You don't approve?" He asked amused by her lack of enthusiasm.

Rose shrugged her fake black hair swaying in it's tight ponytail. "I'm not your mother. You can do whatever you want."

"But you don't find my attractive do you?" He asked boldly and curiously.

"If you want my honest opinion then no, I don't." She cut him down easily and sharply. "But that doesn't matter."

Jake shrugged his big blue eyes filled delight at her indifference. "It does if we are supposed to be madly in love."

"Well Andrews, you said I can lie well," She began her voice and face devoid of any emotion. Then as soon as the elevator stopped, everything shifted, it looked as though she was a lovesick newly wed. "And you were right."

An hour later, Rose was in their targets hotel room searching his things for evidence. She thought she found something, and she was about to signal for Jake when she heard someone blast open the main door to the suite. Stuffing what she had found into her pocket, Rose dove under the bed just in the knick of time and kept perfectly still.

"I saw the girl come in here!" One of them shouted furiously.

"Then," A female breathed, "She's still here. LOOK EVERYWHERE!"

Rose watched under a break in the covers, as one the women's guards headed into the bathroom while the other headed straight for the closet. It was only a matter of seconds before they found her. She knew that it wouldn't be difficult for them to do so. So she needed to a distraction, and then she needed to run like hell.

Crawling slowly over to the edge of the bed, she positioned her body in an extremely low crouch; the tip of her nose grazed the floor as she waited for her opening. The women didn't move, she stood in her abnormally high heels, blocking the doorway from any clean get away. Rose swore silently and decided she had no choice. There was no time to wait, she had to get out now. First she pointed her wand at the bathroom, and non-verbally set the door on fire. The man from the closet, rushed over to check out the damage and in that second Rose barrel rolled out from under the bed and shot a spell at the woman sending her flying back against the wall.

One man ran to come to the aid of the woman and the other ran after Rose. She bolted out of the room and out onto the balcony. Thinking quickly she backed up and took a running jump to the opposite window. She was about a foot short of her goal. Her hands slipped on the railing and she almost fell. Her heart dropped as she clawed at the steel gate fighting to hold on, and prevent herself from falling well over a hundred feet to her death. The rubber souls of her flats dug into the bottom of the fencing, and without a second of hesitation, she flung herself over the barrier and broke into the next room. The tips of her ribs were raw from the way the adrenaline was ramming her heart out of her chest, but she didn't stop. The man was good, and quick on her trail, by the time she made it out of the room, he was already on the balcony.

Rose ran through the hallways as fast as her body would allow her. Her arms and legs swung so viciously it looked more like she was trying to slice the air itself. By the time she made it to the stairs she made it look like she was going to run down them, but instead she flattened herself against the back of the door and when the man rushed through it she slashed her wand and sent the unknown henchmen to his death.

Most people would have let out a sigh of relief or taken a moment to rest, but Rose knew better. The longer you sat and counted your blessings the quicker they were taken away.

So she ran down three flights of stairs flipped her jacked over, pulled her hair out of its tight bun, brushed through it and waltzed into the staff room like she belonged there. Not a single soul looked up. To them, she could be a new maid that was about to change for their shift. In a hotel this big it was easy to get clouded in the crowds of faces.

Jake was supposed to be finding some intell of his own five floors down, but now that Rose had been made she didn't know if that affected his mission or not. As she sat in the ladies bathroom, fully clothed with no intent to use the restroom, she began to worry that he'd been caught. Though Andrews wasn't the best Auror in the ministry or even the best Auror she had ever worked with she knew he usually be counted on to handle his own problems by his career profile. The longer she sat there the more danger she was in. So she had to trust that he would get out and meet her at their rendezvous point.

In less than five minutes she had successfully changed into a maid's uniform and left out the front door completely unnoticed. Once she was past the building, she curved around the building, took off the maid's uniform and dumped it in a dumpster behind the hotel. Leaning against the brick building her anxiety and sweat began to build as she checked her watch urgently. She was supposed to leave if he didn't show up within three minutes of the deadline. No exceptions, no excuses. But she couldn't. Andrews wasn't her favorite person in the world, but he was her partner. And she didn't know why, but she knew that he would wait for her. It was risking her job to go against procedure, but as the scorching August heat began to grow in temperature, she found she couldn't leave.

Procedures were made to ensure what little safety the Ministry could. Rose knew they did it for a reason and that these rules were for the good of all Auror's. It wasn't that she didn't clearly understand and respect the operations and causes for her job. It was that there was an unspoken commitment to her partner that went a step farther than her commitment to her job. If they'd been partners for longer she would have known better what to do and she wouldn't have so conflicted about it. But this was her second mission with him and she didn't have the faintest idea what to make of this.

"Weasley," A voice laughed making her jump and pull out her wand. Jake Andrews had a long gash on his forehead and he was limping a little, but he still had the sense of humor to raise his hands in innocence. "You stuck around."

"Merlin!" Rose scoffed healing his forehead, "What happened?"

He waved her off with an exhausted sigh, as she threw his arm over her shoulder and began trying to help him walk. "Just got out of hand. I'll explain more later. Let's just get out of here."

"Are you sure you can apparate?"

"Yes, let's go Rose." He said in an exasperated voice.

Rose paused and looked at him, before shaking her head and apparating back to the ministry.

* * *

**August 30th 2029**

"Seriously!" Rose groaned, clutching her face in agony. "It's like my face is just a magnet for pure evil…Is my eye swelling up?" She cried out in pain.

Jake put his arm around her and guided her into a nearby restaurant easily. "We'd like a booth in the back and a bucket of ice, please."

"I swear that guy came out of nowhere! And he didn't even apologize...Bloody git...Elbows me in the face and doesn't even turn around to see if I survived his attack..."

"You'll be fine." He snorted handing her a bucket of ice.

Rose laughed bitterly under her breath. "Your eye isn't swelling up to high hell."

Jake unwrapped his napkin expertly, shoved some ice in it and gently applied it to her face. The gesture was meant to be simple, she could tell, but from the moment he scooted over and moved his hand to her face the context of the situation because unnecessarily heated. Though she felt uneasy about it, she didn't move. He was trying to be nice and she was doing her best not to run from it. Even though every impulse told her to flee from any form of kindness from him.

"Thank you," Rose said finally taking the napkin out of his hand and pressing down on her swelling eye.

A few tables over a man got down on one knee and proposed to his girlfriend. It was clearly meant to be simple and impulsive, but Rose couldn't feel anything, but bitter contempt for the both of them. How clique was it to do it in a crowded restaurant with everyone watching? At that moment you didn't care about your love for the other person. You just want to show off that someone wants to marry you, because who wants to be the jerk that says no in front of a room full of people?

"Oh Merlin," Rose growled in absolute disgust.

Andrews glanced at her with an odd expression. "You really hate people couples that much?"

"No," Rose said shortly, but then she continued as he gave her a look of disbelief. "The setting…that proposal…" She shook her head, and lowered her voice. "He said being with her would be_ enough_."

"What's wrong with that?"

She gave him a look and scoffed. "Would you like the person that you are being asked to spend the rest of your life with to say that you're,_ 'just enough_?" She shook her head, the sharpness in her face lessened as she spoke. "You say that you have enough butterbeer. You say you have enough clothes. When you love someone it should never be enough. You should always want more of them, of what you have together."

He looked at Rose. He saw her pale face, darkened by heaviness that seemed to grow on her with time. She was tough; she could kill a man with her bare hands without even trying. Many people knew that so they avoided her to keep their life expectancy up. What they didn't see was that she was very smart, and extremely insightful, and more than that she had a big heart. No one with the dedication and drive she did would waste their time and their life fighting evil if they were themselves evil. But it was more than that, because Rose truly believed that she could improve the world. If she just pushed a little farther, if she just worked a little faster

The next question was soft as if it was almost barely spoken. "Why'd you fall in love with him?"

"Who?" Rose asked hoping he was asking about anyone but Scorpius.

He gave her a knowing look. "Malfoy."

She hesitated for a few moments, her face loosing all harshness and becoming tender. The answer wasn't easy as she thought it would be to think of. Her mind cranked through the memories they shared over the many years, until she found an answer to his question.

"He snuck up on me," She laughed for the first time in months thinking of Scorpius's smirking seventeen-year-old face.

"At the time it kind of felt like everything was crushing down on me…It wasn't, I was just being a teenager I suppose…but then I fell in love with him. And ever since I can't give up on him, I won't give up on him…Something in my heart won't let me let go of him..." Rose admitted quietly, her eyes off focused on something distant.

"I'm sorry," She apologized with a laugh as she snapped back out of it. "I'm just vomiting my personal life all over you."

"It's perfectly alright." Jake flashed a smile, his eyes warm with a tint of something Rose didn't recognize. "I'm just getting to know my partner, which is good. I should know the person who has my back."

Rose smiled, a genuine real smile, her hand still pushing frigid eyes into her inflammated cheek.

* * *

**August 16****th**** 2029**

Scorpius snuck into Jake Andrews flat and waited till he returned home. It had taken him a long time to get this plan together, and it had taken him even longer to be healthy enough to execute it. He wasn't embittered or crazed, he was focused and perfectly in control. They had tried to break him, and for a moment they had, but now he had a plan. And the minute he gained that organization there was nothing that could stop him.

"WHAT THE-" Jake clutched his heart, panicked, "Malfoy?! …Mate everyone's been looking for you-!"

"I need you to do me a favor or a lot of people will get hurt."

Jake frowned, "I don't understand…what's going on? How did you get that scar?"

"I need you to go away for awhile." Scorpius stated firmly, everything from his face to his perfectly relaxed.

"…Malfoy…I don't know what happened to you," He whispered seeing the large thin scar on Scorpius's face and cringing. "But you need help mate…I have a job. I can't just go-away-"

"I don't have a lot of time to explain this to you." He said as matter-of-factly. "You will go and someone will take your place."

"Who will be me then?" Jake played along for a moment just to see where Malfoy would take it.

Scorpius sighed, and sat up straighter. "I will."

"How the hell are you going to do that?" He laughed in disbelief as he reached for his wand. "You'd have to work with everyone and let them believe you're still missing. You'd have to be me, and have to look at Weasley everyday." Andrews shook his head in fear. "There's no way you could do that Malfoy. I've seen you two together…"

Pausing Scorpius didn't deny that it would be difficult. He simply said, "You'd be surprised how well I can lie."


	4. A Drop in the Ocean

"HELP!" Rose screamed as loud as she could, as the water level around her grew higher and higher. Her make-up smeared, and the binds on her wrists cut deep as she struggled against them with all of her strength and might. "SOMEBODY HELP ME!"

Soon the water rose to her neck, Rose thrashed violently in the water, the metal binds on her wrists slamming against the wall as the water around her hands filled with blood. Finally, losing any sense of control over herself, she sobbed hysterically as she screamed. She was scared shitless. Andrews was told to leave after a certain time as was she if they didn't find one another. And if he didn't find her she would die.

The water rose and rose around her, and her neck pulsed as she was filled with paralyzing fear. This was it. The end.

* * *

Scorpius woke up early, and crawled out of Jake Andrews bed to his kitchen. He missed his bed; it was warm, comfortable and despite it's size he had very little space in it. Jake Andrews bed was spacious with thin sheets and endless freedom. Scorpius didn't like it. Though he'd spent most of his life sleeping alone, he found it was harder to do now that he knew what it was like to be with someone else.

What was harder though was going through the day doing everything in his ability to become someone else. Sipping his coffee, he dropped polyjuice potion in it and after a few cups, his pale skin, light eyes and bright hair darkened. His body changed, his muscle thinned and he grew an inch and a half. Soon he was completely transformed. He finished the last drop of his coffee and scowled as he thought of what to wear from Andrew's wardrobe.

Getting dressed is such a simple process most of the time. You wake up and just pick out whatever you feel like wearing that day, but when you become someone else the whole thing becomes complicated. You have to think of what they would want to wear and why. Most imposters miss the why, and that's why they were so easily caught. If you don't know why someone chooses a blue blazer over a brown suit jacket, than you really don't know them at all. And there were people who knew Jake Andrews, who would know that his favorite color was blue and he hated wearing black, Scorpius's favorite color. So he had to watch and be careful.

It was easy deceiving Andrews friends. They were stupid enough to believe him when he said the reason he didn't get an inside joke was because he was tired. Sure Jake Andrews did work hard, but there was no reason for that to mean he suddenly didn't understand jokes between him and his friends. There's no amount of exhaustion that can erase that.

The hard part was walking around changing every natural instinct he had. He couldn't walk around like he would walk, with long purposeful strides. He had to take short rapid choppy steps, which would have looked ridiculous on Scorpius's body, but actually worked with Jake Andrews taller, thinner form. Also there were more little things that drove Scorpius absolutely mad, for instance, how Andrews was left handed. Half the day he'd have everything else down; the walk, the talk, the eating habits, the bad habits, but one thing he just kept messing him up was the natural reflex to use his right hand. Thankfully nobody noticed. As long as he did everything else right no one looked at him twice.

It wasn't way to spend his days. It was tiresome, and really boring, but he had to do it. They were going to come back, and they were going to tare the ministry apart. If he didn't do this his family would be endanger, Rose would be endanger, and that was something he'd rather die then allow that to happen.

So he sat in another man's house, in another man's clothes, in another man's body and another man's life until the time came that he could be himself again.

* * *

"Rose, my wedding is less than a week away," Kelly breathed anxiously as she paced the room. "I'm going barking over here!"

"Alright, alright cool it." Rose told her soothingly, as she took the wedding plans out of Kelly's white-knuckled death grip. "Let me hold onto this before you break it."

Rose guided Kelly to a chair, and pushed her long dark hair out of Kelly's face. "I want you to sit down and calm down. You get six days off a year and I don't want you wasting one of them on hysterics."

Kelly sighed and put her head in her tan hands. "I know! I know! I just…I want everything to be perfect. We are spending so much money and I just…"

"Shhh…It's okay. You just have to breathe alright?" Rose rubbed her back soothingly. "I have everything covered. All you have to do is jump into your dress and take a little walk down the crimson carpet."

Lauren laughed as she lounged comfortably on Rose's couch. "Yeah, Kell, you're going to going go mad if you keep this up. The wedding is supposed to a happy occasion. _'member_?"

"I'm _quite_ aware of that Lauren," Kelly said sharply, as she rubbed her temples.

"Okay okay." Rose intervened, giving them both dirty looks. "Let's dial this back a bit and calm down. Alright?"

Both Kelly and Lauren nodded.

Rose sat down across from Kelly and sighed. "I have to get to work for a bit-"

"I thought you weren't working today!" Kelly shrieked, in blind panic.

Holding her hands out to soothe Kelly, Rose's eyes widened. "I took a half day…I have to go finish up paperwork. I will be back around dinner time." She shifted her gaze to Lauren, "So Lauren is going to take you out to see a muggle movie, and-"

"Oy-!" Lauren protested sitting up quickly.

"AND!" Rose continued her eyes narrowing at Lauren, "You two aren't allowed to talk about the wedding at all."

"Thank you Merlin." Lauren whispered under her breath as she ruffled her disheveled blonde hair.

Kelly's mouth snapped open, most likely to uninvited Lauren from the wedding entirely, but Rose swept in and picked them both up out of their chairs.

"I think you two need some fresh air."

"But-" Lauren began in a small whining voice.

Rose locked eyes with her and growled. "Lauren-Ann, don't push me alright?"

"Fine fine," Lauren conceded after the use of her middle name.

Rose eventually herded them both out of her flat and headed to work. Her patience was thinning with the pair of them. Lauren was still miserable and hadn't dated anyone since Hugo. Over the past few weeks her annoyance with Kelly's insistent talk about her wedding had grown to the point of outward aggression. It wasn't her intention to be jealous, Lauren wanted Kelly to get married and she wanted her to be happy, but to see them together and have to deal with it all the time just made it unbearable to her. Kelly to her credit wasn't trying to put her wedding in Lauren's face. She even went as far to suggest Lauren bring a date, but Lauren took this an offense like she would be seen as sad and pathetic if she came without one.

As far as she was concerned they were both being ridiculous. Kelly needed to realize that no matter how many preparations she made the whole wedding could go to hell, so she might as well just relax and enjoy it. Rose felt that Lauren, on the other hand, should just stop being an idiot and talk to Hugo. Whatever the hell had lead to their breakup was stupid if it wasn't enough to make their feelings for each other subside in the slightest.

* * *

Once she got to work she pulled out the muffins she baked at home and put them by the coffee station in the staff room. Before she could leave she saw Jake Andrews walk in all tall and lanky and take one.

"What are you upset about?" He asked bluntly gesturing to the food.

Rose frowned, confused on how he could know that. "I…_nothing_…What makes you say that?"

He flinched as if he thought he said the wrong thing. "You just…er look upset."

"No…" She laughed at herself. "I do bake when I get worked up…Uh I guess my best friend's wedding is just stressing me out. How could you tell?"

"I saw the cookies from last week, and the cake last month…" He drifted off not looking her in the eye as he took another muffin.

"Yeah well…" She shifted awkwardly blushing and scratching her hairline. She saw a flyer for the mandatory Ministry ball the next night and decided to move the conversation to something else.

"We seriously have to go to a dance?" She scoffed, crossing her arms pointing at the flyer. "How can they make this mandatory? We are adults! How can they make us do anything."

"It's a Ministry ball," Jake Andrews shrugged unconcerned as he took a bite of his muffin. "I'm sure it will be a laugh."

Rose eyed him with a nasty look on her face. Of course for guys it was a laugh but she was going to have to spend two hours getting ready for it. And since she didn't have a single motivation in the world to go it made the whole idea repugnant to her.

"What?"

"Nothing." She lied shifting away from him.

"You know," He started a smirk forming that didn't quite look right on his face. "You say you have no problem with me."

"I don't." She countered walking out of the staff room to her desk.

He snorted follow her lazily. "You should tell that to your face."

She smiled unwillingly, turned and nudged him. "Come on, we have loads of paperwork to do and I'm sure you have much better things to do than stand here and wonder what I think of you."

"And what if I don't?"

"Then you have a sad pathetic little life." Rose scoffed as she eased into her desk chair.

He eyed her, the smirk still visible. "What is it wrong for someone to want you to think well of them?"

Her teasing tone was gone, and she frowned, her eyes downcast on her work. "No one should care what I think of them. I'm nobody and I will accomplish very little. My name will be put on that plaque with all the other Auror's that died in battle, and my family will mourn me, but that is all." She looked up with a very forced smile. "So there's no need for anyone to get a their panties in a twist over me."

His hand twitched as if to grab hers, it was a flash, but then he put his hand under his desk and began working. Rubbing her eyes, she forced herself to believe she had imagined it. Jake Andrews would never comfort Rose Weasley and he most certainly wouldn't do so as a reflex. She had to have been seeing things.

"You alright Weasley?"

She nodded not bothering to look up.

Aiden, Rose's long ago boyfriend came strolling over to her desk, a big goofy grin on his face. "Hey Ro."

"What are you doing here?" She checked her watch. "Aren't you supposed to be in a conference in Japan right now?"

"Nah," He said plopping down in his desk chair. "I don't have that until Thursday. What are you up to?"

She gestured to the piles of folders. "Paperwork until March."

"So you couldn't possibly ditch this for a bit and do lunch with me?"

"I could," She began, "But I won't…Maybe later on this week?"

Aiden looked disappointed but he nodded all the same.

"How did your date go by the way?" She asked politely.

"Fine," He shrugged unconcerned by the whole thing. "How about you?"

Andrews didn't look up, but Rose noticed that he stopped fidgeting like he usually did while he worked when Aiden asked that particular question. "What do you mean what about me?"

"It's been three months Rose, it's almost the end of September." He said with a heavy sigh. "When do you think you're going to get back out there?"

Rose's face sharpened in anger. "If you think I can just put a dress on, go on a date with some guy when I don't even know if Scorpius is…" She let the sentence die as she forced herself to look back down at her paperwork.

"Okay, but what if he is alive, and well, and he's just out there dating and living his own life? I'm not saying it's likely as the whole ministry's on the look out for the bloke, but-"

"He wouldn't do that." Rose told him firmly. "He might be alive and he might be in hiding, but he wouldn't be going on dates out on the town like some idiot."

Aiden pushed his dark hair out of his face. "How do you know?"

"Because I know him." Rose said softly, her voice tender, but full of unwavering conviction.

Across from her she saw Jake Andrews smile for a second, this time she knew she saw it, but she didn't have the slightest clue what he could possibly be smiling about.

"What if his body is found?" Aiden asked worriedly, leaning forward towards her. "Then what?"

Rose swallowed the bitter unhappy feeling that just crawled up her throat at the thought of it. She turned away from Aiden and sighed, "Until that happens I have no idea what I'll do, but I do know I'm not going to suddenly go out with every bloke in town."

"I know. I know. I'm just concerned is all. I want to make sure you're happy."

She forced a smile on her face. "I'm fine Aiden. Now why don't you go get back to work huh? I'll see you tomorrow at the magnificent ball."

"You're going to that?" He laughed in disbelief. "You? Miss-I-Hate-All-Social-Gatherings!"

Rose laughed and flashed him a smile. "I have to, we all do."

"What color is your dress so I can find you?"

"It's just a simple little white dress I found when I was shopping with Lily."

"We'll I'll see you there." He kissed her forehead and left her to her paperwork.

* * *

She tried to go back to work and she did do some of it, but Rose's attentions wavered as memories started popping up in her mind.

_"What most of your dates don't wear neon headbands and no make up?" Rose scoffed sarcastically._

_"Shockingly no. They actually care how much of a resemblance they share with a sprawling duck."_

_She held back a laugh at that and instead gave him a look. "Well, what am I supposed to wear?"_

_"Not grandma's old sweater and a pair of fisherman jeans." He told her authoritatively._

_"What? And I should be dressed like you? Who wears black on a first date?!"_

_"Clearly," Scorpius began snidely, "Someone who values the wear of a good tailor."_

_She rolled her eyes. "Fine. You know what? You're right."_

_"That only took seven years for you to discover that."_

_"Well since I'm such a slow learner and you CLEARLY have a better fashion sense then me why don't you go pick out my outfit?"_

_Apparently, that was not what he was expecting to hear. "…What?"_

_"Well since you are so superior to me in everyway," Rose stopped to smirk, "Then you should have no problem picking out something as simple as something for me to wear."_

_It took a second, but then he scoffed and walked past her. "Whatever Weasley."_

_"Chicken shit."_

_He spun on his heel and gave her a thoughtful glance. "What are you playing at Weasley?"_

_"I'm going to keep challenging you because you Scorpius Malfoy seem to think that you can do anything. And I'd like to see you prove that."_

_"You're on Weasley."_

* * *

"Weasley?" Jake called waving a hand in front of her face.

She blinked and looked around sharply. "What?"

"We have to go, there's a meeting."

"Oh…" She nodded putting away her files temporarily. "Thank you."

She followed Jake to the staff room and stood in the back with him away from the leering stares of some of the other Aurors. There were a few that liked her and were friendly with her, a fair few that was respectful to her out of memory of her father, and then there was an obnoxious number of young male Auror's who went out of their way to bother her.

Jade, the only girl in the room Rose actually liked, moved through the crowd and leaned against the wall next to her.

"You alright Rose? You look like you're dazed."

"I'm just out of it. I haven't been getting enough sleep or something like that I suppose." She shrugged nonchalantly. "How are you?"

Jade's white smile popped against the contrast of her dark skin. "I'm good."

"…Who is he?" Rose asked knowingly.

"Who is who?"

Rose laughed and crossed her arms across her chest. "The guy that has you smiling so big."

"Oh he's a nobody."

"How many dates have we had with Mr. Nobody?" Rose teased her nudging her side.

Jade blushed, a very minor change in her face's coloring. "Three."

"Well I'm happy for you." Rose told her promptly giving her shoulder a reassuring squeeze.

Harry Potter walked into the room, and promptly said, "I'm going to keep this short and to the point as I'm sure you all have more important things to do than to talk about this bloody ball, but I have to say this, show up and for the love of Merlin please don't embarrass this department."

Jade snorted under her breath to Rose, "Like last year when James did a handstand because he was so pissed on firewiskey?"

"His father wasn't even mad at him," Rose smiled at the memory.

"Meeting over," Harry announced promptly walking past them.

Rose laughed at the bluntness of the meeting and followed the herd of people leaving. Jake caught her arm and pulled her aside.

"We just go a lead on the McKibbon case."

Rose frowned, and a rush of guilt rose in her stomach as she thought of the dinner she wasn't going to make with Kelly and Lauren. She wrote them a quick explanation, grabbed her cloak and followed Jake into the elevator. As the metal doors shut, her mind once again drifted off, this time the memory was a few months later than the first, at much different time in their relationship.

_"Okay," He declared before planting one more firm kiss on her urgent lips. "Now I have to go."_

_"I know," she pouted standing on her tiptoes to be eye level with him. His hands winded easily around her slender waist. "I know you do."_

_Rose reluctantly kissed him, and walked him to the door. He opened the door and walked out the door without another look at her. It was the first flat Rose ever had and she shared it with Kelly. It was a small little two bedroom flat with a long winding hallway that was impossible to apparate out of. In order to apparate people would have to walk all the way down the hallway and go to the stairs. The process was practical because then they would be able to put spells on the door to avoid anyone they didn't want to see. But for Rose and Scorpius it just made the situation harder._

_They were right in the middle of their teenage infatuation. It was at the stage where it was unbearable to be a part and unthinkable to leave each other, but they had to. He lived and worked in America, she lived and worked in London. There was no way at the time that either one could relocate. So every time he visited, Rose had to watch him walk down the hall knowing it could be days, weeks until she saw him next._

_Scorpius took a few steps and Rose watched from the doorway still in her sleeping clothes as tears surfaced in her eyes. It took all of her energy not to be pathetic and chase after him. Most times she lost control and chased after him, snogging him a few times before begrudgingly letting him go. He never turned around on his own. Rose never asked why, but she could tell it was because it was taking all his energy to leave in the first place. If he turned around even for a second he might not leave at all._

_But that day was different because he heard her sniffle. The other times he was so focused on moving forward he had not, but on that day he did. The small soft sound reached him and sliced through his heart. And for the first time he turned around and Rose saw that she was right about him. His face was broken, and full of unshed tears as he had been trying to hold it all in. Scorpius took a few steps forward, before dropping his bag and rushing towards her. He couldn't bear to think of her crying, and more than that he couldn't stand to hear it._

_"Don't cry." He begged her, his eyes hardened, as the glimmer of tears appeared in his own eyes. The tips of his thumbs wiped the tears away from her reddening eyes._

_She broke and threw her arms around him. And after a seconds hesitation she threw her legs around him too. Trying to show with every squeeze, every touch, every embrace just how deeply he loved her, Scorpius buried his face in her hair and clenched his eyes closed. _

_"I love you! I love you! I love you!" Rose declared knocking him clear off his feet and planting kiss after kiss on his face._

_He laughed, his face alive with joy and untainted delight. "I love you too."_

There were other men, she could specifically remember their names, only that they had chased her for years, trying to capture her attention. Scorpius was the only one who never had to do that, because from the moment they kissed seven years ago he had taken her heart fair and square. It was odd, but whether they were aware of it or not, every day they were apart it felt like they'd spent the whole time still fighting to be together. Maybe there are some relationships you just aren't meant to forget no matter how unhealthy it is for you to dwell on them.

* * *

They apparated to an old Scottish castle and the butler lead them to a balcony to wait for the man that had information for them on a cold case they were working. The castle wasn't well kept up, the walls looked brittle and so breakable. Rose just wanted to get this done as soon as possible, finish her paperwork and go hang out with Kelly and Lauren. She didn't want to think about Scorpius anymore. She didn't want to think about what Aiden had asked her. She didn't want to think about where he was or if he was even alive at all. All she wanted was to keep moving and avoid that part of her life all together.

Of course she couldn't do that, but the idea was so beautiful that it caught her off guard. As they waited for the lord of the castle to appear Rose sighed.

Staring out at the skyline, she rested her arms on the cement railing and asked Jake, "Do you ever just have flashes of your life? Like your brain is just processing what is and what has always been in your life?"

"Like what?" He asked matching her stance.

She shrugged, "Just little baby moments of time that you have with other people that seem so common at the time, but are the things you hold onto later."

"Yeah…I think we all do that."

"Mr. Andrews?" The butler announced, his crisp Scottish accent breaking their conversation. "Lord Swan will see you now."

Rose and he walked forward through an extremely large and dusty library. She felt that something was strange about this place and wanted to investigate further.

"So," She said under her breath, "Can you deal with Lord-what's his-name for a bit?"

"Where are you going?"

She shrugged, "Take a look around…There's something weird about this place…I'll meet you at the entrance in a half hour."

"Sure."

* * *

As soon as Scorpius figured out Rose wasn't where they were meant to meet up he searched the old broken down castle for her. It had taken him only ten minutes to take down the old fat Lord's statement, and it had taken ten minutes of his life to realize that they didn't need to come in the first place. The man provided no new information to the case; he merely repeated the statement two other people had made.

The longer he looked the more paranoid he became. He traveled down one of the older more cobwebbed staircases calling her name, glancing around for her. Finally he hesitantly stepped into an odd room, it was a room like any other but he could see it originally was used to be a large bathroom from the large pipes a ledge around the edge, and dug in cavern that was filled with water that had to be at least thirty feet deep. That's when he saw her.

He had moved onto the platform out of curiosity and found her underwater. It took him a split second to realize her situation; at first he thought she simply fell in. His mouth opened to say a joke, but soon he saw her thrashing around underwater, never getting far. Then the expression immediately dropped off his face and without another single thought he leapt into the water. She was still conscious but only just. Her body convulsed as she fought to escape. She reached out to grab him, but he was just a few feet too short. And soon, the air that had been struggling in her lungs had given out and she stopped struggling.

Her hair was drifting through the water, and her eyes had slipped to a close, as her now limp body drifted through the water. She looked like she weighed nothing at all as the only thing keeping her from floating to the surface was the steel bindings that trapped her in the first place.

Scorpius didn't give a shit about protocol or his mission or anything else in the entire world. Everything inside him cried out in matching shrieks of uncontrollable and unearthly pain. His muscular arms cut through the water viciously as he fought to get to her. As soon as he did he slashed his wand through the water and helped her free from her hold. Her body drifted forward, her head dropping to face the floor as an invisible anchor lifted her to the waters surface.

He pressed his lips to hers, forcing the oxygen in his body in hers, but she was lifeless and unmoving under his grip. Scorpius didn't wait, he wrapped a protective arm around her waist and shot them both up to the ledge at the waters surface.

Gasping, as his body slammed against the wet ledge surface, he pushed her onto her back and immediately used every spell he could think of to get her to wake up. And when that failed he began performing muggle CPR.

"No," he kept saying. His eyes wild and mad with fear. "No, you can't do this! You are not allowed to do this! Do you hear me Rose Weasley? You are not allowed to die on me!"

She choked, a small splutter of a cough that rose from her small stomach to her throat, spitting out a small amount of water. The color slowly began to return to her face, and Scorpius let out a rather large sigh of relief.

All the hope he had inside of him, any happiness, contentment, or anything remotely pleasant about him resided purely on her survival. When he thought she had died, even for those few seconds, it was like the life had been sucked out of him too leaving him dry and worthless to the world. But now, he sat with her head in his lap and a wide blissful smile on his face looking into bright blue eyes.

"Andrews," She snorted, pushing herself up shivering as she did. "Don't start getting goofy on me. I'm alright…_I am_...Did you catch them?"

He snapped back into character and frowned. "Who?"

"Rachel Levitt, and some man." She gulped, her eyes full of panic as she trembled. "They snuck up on me... disarmed me and locked me down there as they turned on the water."

Scorpius's chest tightened. How could he have been so stupid to let her walk around a strange castle by herself and not think anything of the false interview? This was a trap. The Death Eater revivers had planned this to get Rose out of the way.

"Are you okay?" He asked unable to hide the fear in his voice as dried them both with his wand.

She nodded, "I'll be okay. I just want to get out of here."

"Come on then," He lifted her up to her feet. "I'm going to have a word with Lord…whatever."

"I don't think that idiot knows anything." She told him.

He bit his lip, "Why did you come down here in the first place?"

"I heard music playing. I thought it didn't make sense. I should have known something was more than just off."

Scorpius looked at her face. "Come on. Let's get out of here then."

"Wait," She grabbed his arm to stop him, her red hair frizzing and sopping wet. "Thank you ...for saving me."

After almost losing her he lost track of his priorities. He wanted to kiss her. He wanted to tell her who he really was. He wanted to throw this whole charade out the window and just hold her. All he wanted was to feel her steady heart beat against his chest and know she was going to be okay. But he couldn't. This act, this seemingly random act of violence was specific, was a sign that he couldn't be Scorpius Malfoy. Right now he had to stay in the dark. And no matter how much he wanted to be with her he had to wait, until she was safe.

So he simply said, "You're welcome." And they apparated back to the Ministry.


	5. Awake My Soul

"Are you sure Rose?" James asked in a hushed voice. They both leaned on the railing on the roof of a three hundred foot drop with a darkness hanging over them both. "You're absolutely sure it was Rachel?"

She nodded, her hair flying behind her as her eyes watered. "It was her, all right."

"How the hell did she know you were going to be there?"

"She set it up…I checked the database," Rose said, before biting the side of her lip and then continued in a stiff voice, "Andrews is clean, he only found out about the mission a few seconds before he told me…So it's not him."

James gulped, but tried to hide his apprehension from his cousin. "Did you think it was?"

"No," She answered instantly, "I know I shouldn't trust him, but for some reason I do. It's a feeling I can't seem to shake."

"I really don't think it's a good idea to go to that dance tomorrow." He advised, "…Why would Rachel do that? Wasn't she the one that helped you lot with the ministry function?"

"She owed Albus and I a wizard's debt, and I checked into her history the minute I got back. She's never been married, has a reasonable employment history…it's all too steady. No bumps, no failures at all, which I don't trust."

James snorted, "Why can't you trust someone having a steady life?"

"It's not natural, we're all supposed to fail and falter." Rose shook her head, furious that James of all people didn't believe her. "And then there's the fact that I'd saw her and spoke to her you daft idiot!"

"I'm not saying you're lying!" He raised his hands, "I'm saying I don't understand why she would do it."

Rose let out a heavy sigh and rested her head on the top of the railing. "I don't know anymore okay?! All I know is that she was there, and she tried to drown me. Maybe it was polyjuice potion version of someone, maybe it was her. I don't know! All I know is that I almost died."

James looked at Rose and wrapped an arm around her shoulder as silently tears rolled down his cheeks. It started off just as a gesture, but soon her face was buried in his chest and they both cried. It was the type of embrace that grew until there was no shutting it off. She almost died; she literally thought that she wasn't going to make it. And judging by the look on James's face when he heard what had happened, he didn't think she should have made it either.

There was just something about the way that it had happened. A scratchy chill that drifted from their fingers to their toes. Rose shouldn't have survived, everything about the situation screamed it was her time to go. Andrews wasn't supposed to find her, but he did, and the fact that she'd scraped by and evaded death once more made everything darker this time around. Because she wasn't in battle, there wasn't a war, and it happened in less than the time to listen to a new pop song.

Rose had been holding it together, even better she had been moving on with her life. She had been doing everything in her power to cling to the remains of her life, but after the night she had, all of that internal hope and security was gone.

She didn't go to have dinner with Lauren and Kelly. She didn't even go back to her flat. Her first instinct was to find James, and tell him what happened. All she needed was for someone to understand and James was the closest thing she had. It wasn't exactly what she needed, but as she inhaled his scent, the nostalgia and security of her youth swept up in her. For a moment it stitched her broken self together, but quickly she found it wasn't enough.

James frowned, his eyes mirroring an exact echo of how she was feeling. "You want me to take you home?"

_"No_," Then in a much softer tone she said, "No…I'm fine. I just need to sleep it off."

"You sure?"

Rose nodded, not even bothering to look at him. "Yeah. I'll see you tomorrow."

* * *

Apparating about a mile from her flat, Rose curled her cloak around her body. She didn't put an invisibility spell on herself, but she felt like there was one on her anyway. It felt like the whole world was right in front of her, but she couldn't touch it. She couldn't feel it anymore.

In her memory, she remembered being at Hogwarts perfectly. She remembered how everyday no matter how much drama and complications her life had she still was safe, she still was loved, and she still had a full and lively life to lead. Now it was like every time she turned a corner she just got knocked down again. As the cold drafty night swept by her, Rose couldn't help, but wonder why she bothered anymore. Of course she had to keep fighting, and until her last breath she would despite what she was feeling. But she was having trouble remembering just what she was fighting for.

Once she made it up the steps of her apartment, she paused when she saw Jake Andrews standing at the end of the hallway. Her chest shuddered, as she tried to stop her eyes from watering, but she couldn't. Instead she started shaking.

"Andrews, what are you doing here?" She snapped in a voice that was so far from kind a flash of hurt crossed his features instantly.

"I wanted to check on you."

"There was no need."

"I just…" He failed to find an excuse good enough, so he smiled, "I wanted to make sure…"

She tried to force a smile on her face as she lied. "I'm fine."

"Rose, you don't have to-"

"I don't have to what?!" Rose snapped, her polite spirit gone and all forms of honesty bleeding through. "I don't have to pretend I'm okay when I'm not? You can save it! Well I'm sorry to tell you this Andrews, but I don't have it in me anymore alright?! So kindly bugger off. I appreciate the concern, I do, but I can't do this. I CAN'T DO IT ANYMORE!"

Tears slipped down her cheeks as crumbled to pieces in front of him. She was about to run, like a coward, her knees bending in preparation but she didn't because in a split second everything changed.

Her heart rate escalated and she froze. The look in his eyes and was startled by what she saw. The look, only a handful of men had ever given her, and a look that only one man had ever mastered was lingering in his eyes. And Rose suddenly felt like she had missed a step. The darkness that had taken over her, like a growing, unforgiving plague and then suddenly it cleared in just that brief moment.

He leaned against the doorway, with an expression, that didn't belong on Jake Andrew's face. She couldn't explain to herself why or even how she knew that. But she felt it in her very bones. Something else that occurred to her was that the expression would have fit perfectly on Scorpius Malfoy's face. The stiffness in his face, the layered emotions in his eyes, the way his body was restraining itself from reaching out to touch her …Her mind had to be playing tricks on her, but she _knew_ it wasn't.

"I'm going mad aren't I?" She breathed starring up at him.

"No, of course not Weasley," He told her not knowing what she was talking about. "Why don't you get inside and get some sleep?"

Rose nodded, dazed, and not talking her eyes off of him.

His arm shot out to stop her, to check to see if she was really okay. The color of his eyes were wrong, the tone of his skin was off, everything about the Jake Andrews she had known for years was there, but it didn't… fit. Rose never so much as hugged him in her life and he had never said so much as good morning to her, but she knew him. She knew him in a way you could only know someone you've worked with for a long time. This wasn't Jake.

"Will you be alright? Do you want me to stay?"

"Thankkks," Rose stammered, wiping her face, "But I'm fine Andrews. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Rose," He whispered, his voice pained with an emotion that struck a nerve inside of her, making goosebumps rise on her pale arms.

"I'm fine!" She insisted, busting into her flat and quickly locking the door behind her.

As soon as it was impossible for him to get in, Rose slid down the door, her eyes wide with a mixture of fear of confusion. Was she mad? Was she so broken that she was looking for enemies everywhere? Or was she finally seeing clearly?

* * *

Scorpius pounded on James's flat door repeatedly, his face frantic with worry. "Open up you git!"

"Woah woah woah!" James groaned as he cranked open his flat front door. He rubbed his recently awoken face, his eyes have opened. "What the hell…you aren't _supposed_ to be here!"

Pushing past him to walk inside Scorpius said bluntly, "I'm aware of that _thanks_ James! What I want to know is what you said to Rose."

"I just left her about an hour ago," James inhaled shutting his door and wiping the extremely recent sleep from his eyes. "I didn't say anything to her. All we did was talk about what happened-"

"And what did she say?!" Scorpius insisted, his eyes wild with fret.

James frowned and leaned against the wall, "She told me it was Rachel that tried to kill her…Shouldn't you know all this? You _were_ there!"

"Yes, but she didn't tell me anything! Don't you see? She just told me the bare minimum!"

Letting out a heavy sigh, James ran a hand through his wayward hair and leaned all of his weight on the top of his dinning room chair. His brown eyes focused on what appeared to the rest of the world to be Jake Andrews. For a moment he didn't know what to say, and then the words came to him all at once.

"I don't know what you want Scorp." James began wearingly, "She doesn't trust Jake Andrews and frankly you know that's a good thing…Rose is falling a part. She doesn't know who to trust so it's better than she doesn't trust someone like Jake Andrews."

"Well he's in Cuba right now," Scorpius snapped in irritation straddling one of James's dinning room chairs. "And I'm stuck in his place without a single clue what's going on with her."

James shrugged, "Well then why don't you drop this charade?...I get the purpose is to keep her safe-"

"She would have drowned if I hadn't held onto this cover." Scorpius interjected defensively, the emotion in his eyes betraying him.

"Don't you see?" James whispered, "Did you see her face tonight? Without you she's slowly dying anyway."

Scorpius grimaced and glanced away. "I _have_ to keep her safe…_I've given up everything_…I _need_ them all to be safe."

"Well then I don't know what you want me to say," James told him flippantly, "All I know is what I've told you. She could be holding information back. I don't know alright?"

For a few minutes they just existed in silence. Scorpius buried his head in his hands and felt a twitch, and then another, and within seconds the polyjuice potion was all used up. His joints, his muscles, his very bone structure shook, as they snapped, broke and realigned to shift back into his own body. When it was done, Scorpius's hands clenched onto the chair, his face lined with sweat as he panted uneven panicked breaths.

"Scorp…?" James asked in a small unsure tone as he took a few hesitant steps towards him.

Scorpius gasped, his throat rough, "Water," He croaked, "I need water."

Bolting to the sink, James abandoned his wand and poured Scorpius a glass before rushing it over to him. As soon as the glass was cupped in Scorpius's twitching palms, he choked it down as if his entire body was dry without it.

The first time James had seen him since he was taken Scorpius was barely alive. He had somehow managed to run far enough away from where he was imprisoned to apparate to James's flat. When James arrived home he found him, half starved, half mad and violently shaking under his bed. James pretended to take months off of work to go looking for him. He made his flat look abandoned, used his father's cloak to get around to get the necessities and took care of Scorpius.

It took so long for him to get his sanity back, and now sometimes, even though Scorpius was back in good health, James saw the damage flicker inside of him. He was so terrified that one wrong move and it could kill Rose, but what James noticed was it was just as easy for Scorpius to make one wrong move and someone could figure him out. Someone could figure everything out, and then everything would be in vain.

But there was no use explaining that to Scorpius.

They'd become really close mates, James would even go as far to say was the best mate he'd ever had, which meant that he knew exactly how his mind worked. With Scorpius there was only two roads, the road he traveled and the other road…that was it. He never gave considerations to doing anything other than the way he thought he should do them. Scorpius had a plan and that was it, no deviations, no back up plan that was it.

What haunted James the most was the first thing Scorpius said to him. When he became …clearer, he asked about his parents and made absolutely sure that his mother hadn't been harmed in any way shape or form. But that wasn't the first thing he said. It was funny how it came out. Not funny in a humorous way, but funny in an uncontrollable way. Scorpius wasn't in his right mind so he couldn't choose what he was saying; it was none filtered and completely genuine.

As he watched Scorpius take a few minutes to drink water, that word echoed into his mind and he wished more than anything that he could talk to someone, anyone about this. But he couldn't. Just like Rose couldn't talk to anyone about her life, and Scorpius had to hide his, they were all prisoners in their own tragedies all in the name of saving others.

Scorpius just needed to be in his own skin for a just a few moments even if that was all he was going to have for the week. He needed to be himself just for a second without worrying every instant that his actions, his behaviors could have a direct consequence on the ones he loved. His blond hair had grown long and his face was unshaven, as he hadn't been in his own body long enough to do so. What affected James the most though were his eyes, they were empty jagged and almost cold.

"Scorp," James murmured in a low tone, he wasn't even sure Scorpius could hear. "How much longer are you going to do this to yourself? How much longer can you let your family think your missing? How much longer do you think you can hide this from Rose?"

Scorpius let out a hollow laugh, a grin worthy of only a son of Malfoy, "I dunno mate…." He pushed his hair back off his face and he starred at the floor in wonder and dismay. "Do you ever just look back at what you were like when you were sixteen or seventeen and wonder how the hell you got to where you are?"

James smiled at that. "All the time."

"I always fancied your cousin, but I always hated her too," Scorpius admitted in a rare spill of emotion. "But as soon as I kissed her…" He licked his severally chapped bottom lip and shook his head with a weary smile. "I've never been able to shake her since."

"Maybe you didn't shake hard enough." James snorted in disbelief. "I've never had that trouble with women."

Scorpius laughed, a real full laugh and then reached over and clapped James on the shoulder. "That's because you're an idiot Potter."

"Better a single idiot than a hopeless romantic."

Shrugging Scorpius didn't deny that, instead he pushed himself up to his feet and sighed. "I better go back then."

"Hold on mate, alright?" James told him supportively. "I'm sure they'll make their move soon enough."

"That's what I'm afraid of." Scorpius replied grimly before popping open his flash and forcing down another dose of polyjuice potion.

* * *

Rose didn't sleep at all that night. She went over every single detail of every solitary instant she spent with Jake Andrews, or whoever was pretending to be him anyway. For hours she went over and over it connecting any thread of evidence until she was completely sure she was right. He wasn't Jake Andrews, and as soon as she proved that to herself so inconclusively, she moved right onto her next plan of action.

Finding out who the hell he was.

Rose got dressed quickly, not bothering to especially care what she put on. Her mind was filled with theories and possibilities. The one thing she knew for sure was that by the end of the day she would figure this out. The only thing was she had to act like there was absolutely nothing wrong. She couldn't give anything away, not even for a second to show that she thought anything was the least bit off.

Before she left she went in her bathroom and starred into the mirror. "You…You got this…Just pretend you don't care…You're good at that….Just pretend you're still reeling from yesterday…Don't look at him too long…Just hold on and silently look for signs…You can do this…You are Rose Weasley." Rose told her reflection determinedly, her arms and legs shaking a bit as she did.

Rose then took one last look at the mirror, threw her cloak over her shoulder and sighed. This was going to be a long day.


	6. Heartbeat

"I need to talk to you," Rose stated, tugging on her uncles arm like she had when she was a child. The difference was she wasn't going to give him the option to turn her down. "Right now, uncle."

Her Uncle Harry's eyebrows furrowed as he glanced down at her. "Rose-"

"No," She told him sharply and quietly. "You can hate me all you want. You can think I killed Albus for as long as it takes for the pain of his death to go away…I. Don't. Care." Rose insisted her voice completely still. "I need you to come with me…_right, now."_

* * *

**Twelve Hours Earlier…**

Moving into the office that morning was like heading into the jungle wearing packets of meat with nothing but a stick to protect her. She was trained in a lot of things through her job. Rose Weasley didn't have a lot of skills other then book smarts and Quidditch when left Hogwarts. When she was eighteen she had no idea how to defend herself, how to deceive someone and most importantly how to tell if someone was deceiving her. But now, at 24, she saw the devils everywhere and finally she had really found one, right under her nose.

Her first objective was to write down as much pieces of evidence as she could, without the fake Jake Andrews noticing, but she knew it was nearly impossible. If this guy had been copying her real partner, then he had to know her well. He had to know when she was acting strange and he had to be writing down her motivates as well. So this had to be played perfectly, as if she wasn't living her life, but playing her life as a role. And since she had never thought of her life like that, it was a bit of an… adjustment.

"You alright Rose?" Fake-Jake asked her in this stiff, but concerned voice.

She nodded and did what she would do if the last part of last night hadn't happened. "…I'm fine Andrews…You honestly don't have to worry about me," Rose pinched the bridge of her nose, "I'm fine."

"You know that tonight we have to go to the ball with our partners right?" Andrews reminded her shifting the conversation away from her.

"What?" Rose was honestly thrown off by this piece of information. "When was that decided?"

"Last week…You were at the meeting."

Rose frowned, and remembered blocking out her Uncle's words because of her frustration with him. "I wasn't listening."

"Well…uh…um, what color is your dress?"

She looked right across the desks separating them, and said, "White."

For a moment, he paled, but then he asked, "A white gown?

"Yes," And then she said, "What?"

He shook his head and avoided her eyes, his chest tightening in an emotion she couldn't decipher. "Nothing."

Looking over her caseload for the rest of the week, Rose thought of why he would have such an expression. Why would a white dress almost seem to… rattle him?

"Yes," An elegant, but crisp voice cut through her thoughts from a few desks over, "I'm here to see Rose Weasley."

Rose twisted around in her chair to see Mrs. Malfoy standing only a few feet over, her soft brown hair twisted in a knot on top of her head. Instantly she leapt to her feet and went to her side.

Rose told one of her colleges, "Thanks Matt, I have this." Then after that she placed a hand on Mrs. Malfoy's back and guided her aside. "Astoria," Rose blinked, "Is everything alright?"

"Rose, I have to tell you something, but," She gulped and glanced around anxiously, "Not…here," Mrs. Malfoy whispered.

Nodding, she said, "Alright…Come on," Rose moved her along and told the Fake-Jake, "I'll be back later."

Fake-Jake said nothing, but Rose saw a flicker of emotion behind his eyes at the sight.

**Evidence #4:**

_The sight of Rose Weasley with Astoria Malfoy makes the culprit jumpy when has no reason to be._

"What has you so startled?" Rose whispered as she brought Astoria into the Auror's side of an empty integration room.

"Rose," She gulped, suddenly looking jumpy and very nervous, "There's been movement in Scorpius's bank account."

Freezing Rose said, "…What…what do you mean there was movement?"

"I didn't notice it at first," Astoria Malfoy whispered as she sank down into a nearby chair, "You told me to look for anything strange…to you know, keep track of his finances and then I saw this morning that for the past three months small amounts of money were being funneled out of his account every minute…The amount was…just so small I didn't see it…"

"Shhh…it's okay," Rose soothed her, as she rubbed small circles into her shoulders. "You weren't supposed to do anything but let me know as soon as you knew and you are doing exactly that right now."

She shuddered as tears escaped her eyes, "I know…I know."

"Astoria, look at me," Rose told her softly as she bent over to get eye level with her. "This is good news, they can't get into his account without him."

"Yes they can! They can torture him…or. Or. They can…" Her voice died off when a seemingly endless stream of tears began falling down her face.

Rose wrapped her arms around the small, loving woman, and felt tears prick at her own eyes, she held the woman as she cried in terror and pain. All she wanted was her son to come home and Rose wanted more than anything to tell her that was the case. But she couldn't bring herself to give Scorpius's mother anymore hope. Hope was a fickle friend, it finds you when you need it most, but it also is the biggest liar. It tells you to believe, to tells you hold onto faith, and makes you think that somehow someway what has been lost will be returned to you. And sometimes it's true, sometimes if you put all of your trust and energy into something, it does work out. But usually it doesn't, and Rose didn't have the heart to break hers. So instead she said nothing and just held her almost…could have been, most likely should have been mother in law and said nothing.

Eventually she calmed down and gave Rose the paperwork so she herself could examine it. Rose didn't even look at; she slipped it into her purse to read later, away from prying eyes. Then, she walked Mrs. Malfoy out to the visitor elevator and gave her one last hug. Her pale arms cradled the small fragile woman, as she fought to control herself.

"I will come see you soon, to address it," Rose promised her in a broken whisper.

Unable to respond, Astoria Malfoy nodded, and gulped down the fresh batch of tears that were surfacing in her eyes.

* * *

A lot of things got to Rose, things that fell through the harsh barriers, into the tiny cracks that shot through her, breaking down any grasp she had on her emotions. She briskly stormed back to her desk and slammed down into her chair forcing herself to look at the paperwork in front of her.

"What happened?" He asked cautiously.

"Nothing," She snapped, not looking at him.

He said, "Wasn't that Mrs. Malfoy?"

This time she didn't have to fake the rush of emotion she was supposed to have. The tears were real, as were the shaky sentiment behind them. Her eyes hardened, his jaw tightened, and her finger nails dug so deep into her palm, a small prickle of blood ran from it.

When this was just about the job it was different. She could detach and think about it like it was a mission, focusing on simple tasks to fix the overall picture…But this was far too personal for that to ever have been possible. How could she have even deceived herself into thinking she was that cold? How could she have convinced herself that it didn't matter? They had systematically dissected her life and sliced it apart, searching for any vulnerabilities and in the process cut away any part of her life that she needed. Sitting there, staring at a stranger, all of the blood rose in her body, turning over and over again, scorching her cells until her very skin turned almost red enough to match her hair.

Rose couldn't last the entire day. For a few seconds she wasn't even sure if she could last another minute. All of her loathing and hate was curling around, buried deep down, fueling venom into her veins. Across from her was person pretending to be someone else for the soul purpose to crawl their way into her life like a leech, a horrible nasty little parasite.

And right then, she wanted nothing better than to seize him by the collar and slam him into his desk repeatedly until he begged, pleaded even, for mercy and forgiveness. She wouldn't stop. Not until he, whoever the hell this soulless…heartless, bastard was told her what he did with Scorpius and why he was doing this to her now.

The only thread, a small almost feeble thread, that held her back was Astoria Malfoy. Rose promised her that she would do everything she could. And right now that would be keeping her mouth shut until she knew who he was. If she tipped him off, if she hurt him, she may never find out anything, and in some ways that was so much worse then knowing the truth.

So, she clamped her jaw tight, and said nothing. She clamped her jaw tight so much her muscles began to ache and whine. For hours, Rose threw herself into her work. Using her anger and rage to rip through all of her work to the point where, for the first time in her career, she finished all of her work early. When she finally stopped, Rose looked down and saw a small bruise forming in the space on her hand she'd been gripping her quill with. Still fuming, Rose cleared her throat and realized she's skipped lunch.

"I'm leaving," She stated to the imposter, not looking at him.

"Where are meeting tonight? …For the ball?"

Rose looked at him for the first time in hours, barely concealing the hate lingering in her eyes. "7:00, front of the ministry, by the Albus Dumbledore statue."

"Why the Dumbledore statue?" He asked, his eyebrows rising, looking skeptical at the location choice.

She shrugged, no longer caring how she appeared to seem. "Just be there Andrews."

Rose moved to leave; the file Mrs. Malfoy shifted to the bottom of her purse, forgotten and waiting to be found until much later.

* * *

"Are you sure you want to go to this?" Lauren wondered aloud while she eyed her green gown in the mirror. "I mean I'm sure I can say you came down with something if someone asks."

"No," Rose said shortly, not bothering to see how she looked. "I'm fine."

"Well you look like you're about to go axe-murder crazy…but if you say you're fine…"

"I am."

Lauren shrugged, her long blonde hair touching the split in the back of her dress. "Okay."

"You look nice Lauren…Do you have a date?"

Her cheeks flushed, but she otherwise showed no other sign she was bothered at all. "Yes, he's a nice bloke, and not bad looking either."

"That's nice," Rose said stiffly.

"Look," Lauren sighed sitting down next to her, "I …well …I fancied your brother, but he's keen on pushing me away. And I'm not going to wait anymore. It's time I moved on and accepted that I…" She cleared her throat and a more resolved look focused on her pale, "That I deserve more."

Rose's face softened and she gave Lauren's hand a squeeze. "If that's how you honestly feel then I'm behind you a 111 percent."

"Why 111?" Lauren snorted, standing up to check her reflection one more time.

"Because," Rose muttered, leaning back on her forearms, "It's an odd number kind of a day."

"What do you mean?"

Rose shook her head.

"What Rose?" Lauren asked, twisting to look at her, "You seem…all angry and frigid."

"I just found out something today…I can't talk about it, but it's bothering me."

She sighed in disapproval, "That job of yours is going to eat you alive."

"I know. Believe me," Rose rubbed her face carefully avoiding the traces of make-up on her face, "I know."

"Well as long as you're aware of it."

Rose grabbed her purse and stood up. "Have you talked to Kelly?"

"She's owled me at least twelve times today…I think I'm more excited than she is to see this thing ended." Lauren said darkly as she grabbed her own purse and linked arms with Rose. "How about you Maid of Honor? Are you ready for it all to be over?"

Taking a brave breath, Rose fixed her posture and looked at her best friend steadily. "I'm ready."

Rose had a few ideas of how she would corner the fake-Jake. All of them were discarded as soon as she saw him. Lauren left her to go find her date. For a second, there was a small reel in Rose's head. It played out slowly. In the first movie she tortured him, throwing the consequences aside and no longer caring about anything or anyone else, but instead focusing on just causing him pain. A slow darkness crept over Rose making her believe in doing the most horrible things. It was possible, he hadn't seen her yet. Rose could just take him out and end all of it. Her collarbone shuddered and her lips trembled, people in their formal wear passed by her mindlessly, none of them knowing what was going on her mind. But then the image flipped to the next reel, the reel of Scorpius's face, smiling and even laughing. Blinking away tears, her fingers jabbed into her palm, once again drawing blood.

She had a choice. She always had a choice, but this time the thing driving her to hate this man, giving her impulse to kill was also the thing restraining her from doing so. Eventually the choice was taken away from her all together. Andrews eventually noticed her standing there and walked over with a smile.

Under that smile, Rose caught the flicker of concern, the flicker of uncertainty. How had she not had noticed for so long? The answer was because she never really looked at her partner at all. And that made her shittier than she could ever explain.

"You alright Weasley?"

Rose nodded, looking far too pale.

He held out his arm for her to link hers through. After fighting with herself for five seconds Rose twitched her arm through his and walked on. She hoped he didn't know her well enough to tell how deeply damaged she was. Maybe he didn't know her at all and he was just a placeholder to keep an ear out for information. Or that was at least what she told herself as they entered the massive ballroom.

The room was lit up in the most beautiful lights; there were hundreds of tables with the most beautifully dressed people Rose had ever seen. It caught her off guard and she was having a hard time getting any sense of clarity.

"I'll see you later," He told her, unlinking their arms and going off to talk to someone.

Rose didn't watch who he was going to talk to. She had to get a hold of her Uncle. It took her nearly an hour to find him through all of the people. By the time she did she'd been dragged into dancing twice, her feet were killing her and she was in no mood to take no for an answer. Her uncle could hate her until the day she died. It was no longer a concern of her how he felt about her.

"I need to talk to you," Rose stated, tugging on her uncles arm like she had when she was a child. The difference was she wasn't going to give him the option to turn her down. "Right now, uncle."

Her Uncle Harry's eyebrows furrowed as he glanced down at her. "Rose-"

"No," She told him sharply and quietly. "You can hate me all you want. You can think I killed Albus for as long as it takes for the pain of his death to go away…I. Don't. Care." Rose insisted her voice completely still. "I need you to come with me…_right, now."_

He opened his mouth to shut her down, to tell her that the was nor the time or the place, but he saw a fierceness in her eyes, a fiery spirit, which he knew she got directly from her mother and he found couldn't fight her on this one.

"Fine," Harry obliged, "One minute."

Rose lead him out to a hallway and whispered a spell to keep their conversation private. She let out a hasty breath and said, "I think my partner isn't really my partner."

"What?"

"Someone has polyjuiced Andrews and taken his place."

Her uncle crossed his arms, "Where is your proof?"

"Uh…Well…You see…" She stumbled, but then she shook it away and said, "I just know alright?! I've been watching him all day and he isn't the same person. I'm completely sure of it! I will swear to the Minister of Magic-"

"People change Rose," He said darkly. "And without actual proof I can do nothing…_Your word has no weight to it_."

"You know!...You...You are such a git!" She snapped furiously stomping her heel for effect. "For someone who bitches that no one ever listened to you until it was too late you sure do follow in their footsteps!"

* * *

Rose didn't wait for his response; she raced back into the ballroom just as the slender, brunette head coordinator pressed his wand to his throat.

"Now then, witches and wizards! I ask all the single few of you to gather up, take a partner and dance."

"Come on Rose," Her ex-boyfriend said grabbing her hand and pulling her onto the dance floor.

"No! I don't want-"

Aiden shook his head, "I don't care. If I have to dance with Clara Franklin one more time I'm going to kill myself. I mean it. She's driving me mad Rose."

"Aiden-" She protested as he made her get into a dancing position.

"It will be over in three minutes tops," He told her soothingly. "Then you can go back to sulking over wearing a dress…you do look pretty by the way."

Rose groaned, "Aiden! This is a switch partner dance! In a minute I have to dance with another bloke!"

Aiden grimaced as the realization hit him. "Oh…_My bad_."

"I'm going to kill you!"

"Well I would be afraid," He began spinning her around, "If our time wasn't up."

All night Rose had seen Aiden dodging the most unpleasant and needy secretary in the room. His intentions were genuine, but that still didn't stop her from wanting to rip his head off. And she would have, if he didn't spin her right into her next dance partner's arms.

"I'm-" Rose began as soon as the next mans hand reached out for her. But she fell silent when he tossed her around and into his secure somehow… familiar embrace.

Rose gasped, her big blue eyes dilating as she looked up into the eyes of a stranger with Jake Andrews face. The whole night he'd been avoiding her as much as she'd been keeping an eye on him. But while they moved in a dancing formation, he gave her that look again. A look that was so unguarded and so unintentional that it slaughtered any of her defenses.

"I didn't know you could dance." He whispered above the soft tenors of the music as he forced himself to look away from her.

She gulped, thinking of her wand. "_I can't_…I'm just following you."

"You were worse with that other bloke."

"Well," She said furrowing her eyebrows, "I usually have a hard time following him…or anyone really I usually move on the offbeat…except with…"

He said, his lips a centimeter above her ear, "_Except with_?"

"Hey," She breathed her voice cracking, "I have to get some air. Can you come with me really quick?"

"Yeah." He stopped moving. "You alright?"

Rose nodded, with a forced smile, her body shaking.

No longer could she hold back. Rose didn't care that no one believed her. This was the time she'd take care of it, right here and now. She thought fast as they weaved through the crowd, her wand hand twitching in anticipation.


	7. All This Time

Rose was done. Finally she had completely and utterly snapped. She couldn't take another instant of this anymore.

All the time she would fight with herself and try to make herself believe that if she just held on, everything would be alright. That she could wake up the next day and something would give her a reason to keep fighting. But when she tied his hands behind his back and jammed her wand into the biggest vein in his throat, she had no control left. She could lose everything. She already had so many times before but at least now she would lose it in a way of her choosing.

This was her life, and she was so sick and tired of it. She was sick of missing Scorpius. She was drained from missing Albus, and her dad…and everything that was ever good about her life. Now she just wanted to hurt somebody. She wanted to hurt somebody until they felt just as much pain as she did. And who better to do that to than whoever was impersonating Jake Andrews?

The man, whoever the hell he was struggled, but it was useless. He could be bigger, stronger, faster and smarter, but she was the one with the wand, and he was her hostage. And there wasn't a damn thing he could do about it, but squirm and cry. For the first time in a long time, Rose felt an unhealthy rush of power, and instead of thinking of the greater good, she used it to fuel her curling hatred.

"You and I are going to take a little trip," She told him threateningly as they moved out into an empty corridor. "Hope you don't mind!"

His lips were locked firmly, but his face twitched in defiance.

"Shame you can't respond!" She snapped almost cheerfully. "But here-we-go."

And in a flash Rose apparated with him far away.

* * *

"Rose is acting weird." Scorpius told James hours earlier as he leaned against the wall next to him, pretending to be cleaning his wand.

James folded his arms haughtily, scratching the tip of his long nose. "What do you mean?"

"I can't explain it," He breathed under his breath. "I just…I know something is wrong with her."

"Did she say something?!" James asked in a rushed, panicked voice.

"No…no." Scorpius whispered, biting his lip, and scanning the room to look for her. "I just…I just know alright?"

James sighed, "Well… what are you going to do about it? You can't exactly ask her what's wrong."

"I know okay? I know…" Scorpius frowned, "I better go…I highly doubt Jake Andrews would be talking to you."

James smiled, "No, he's too much of a twat to talk to me about anything."

"As it should be." Scorpius muttered walking away.

Scorpius didn't dance and he didn't talk to anyone. He just pretended to drink and kept an eye out for anyone or anything that might try and hurt anyone. But there was nothing. Everything was…fine. No one was acting even remotely strange…except for Rose.

For hours he saw her practically running around the room trying to avoid someone, or maybe she just didn't want to get caught and have to dance with anyone. Either way he was worried about her, she wasn't acting like herself, and even if James thought he was over analyzing the situation he knew that he wasn't. He knew Rose and he knew something was wrong.

Shifting towards the dance floor, he watched as Rose's git of an ex boyfriend haul her unwillingly to dance. Before he could control himself he asked a pretty blond girl to dance. At first he reasoned that he did this to seem normal and to throw off any suspicions. But the second he switched partners, he knew he'd been lying to himself. He wanted to be close to Rose, even if it was just for a second. This was torture, and he needed something, even as simple as a three-minute dance.

As soon his hand grabbed hers, his heart rushed into his throat. He forgot to control himself. He forgot that he wasn't Scorpius Malfoy, and he just…looked at her. There was no filter, it was purely him and her, but she didn't know that. Her large blue eyes were filled with confusion, as he led her around in a circle. His hand was tight on the small of her back and it kept her from getting off beat. Scorpius watched the nerves grow in her chest, and he felt her pulse grow.

"I didn't know you could dance." He whispered above the soft tenors of the music, trying to distract himself from her face.

"I can't…" She gulped nervously, "I'm just following you."

"You were worse with that other bloke." Scorpius announced, pushing the resentment and hatred out of her voice.

"Well," She said furrowing her eyebrows and puckering her lips. "I usually have a hard time following him…or anyone really I usually move on the offbeat…except with…"

He couldn't stop himself. He had to hear it. He needed a reminder of what this really was. "Except with?"

"Hey," She breathed her voice cracking, "I have to get some air. Can you come with me really quick?"

"Yeah." He stopped moving. Scorpius eyed her feverish face carefully. "You alright?"

Rose nodded, with a forced smile, her body shaking and then she ran. It wasn't as fast as she could run; it was just fast enough for him to easily follow her. Jake Andrews would have never danced with her or went after her, but he had to. He couldn't let her be alone anymore.

As he rounded the corner to an abandoned corner far away from the partygoers he searched for her. Just as he took a step, his hand whipped to grab his wand, but he never got the chance. After two months of preparation he was disarmed and body binded by the one person he'd been trying to protect. Scorpius fought to move, to get free to explain himself to her, or to distract her long enough to get away. He needed to do something, but there was nothing he could do.

* * *

Rose circled him as he fell to the floor limp and helpless. Her face was etched with not a single ounce of fear. Instead her face was filled with a sick mixture of happiness and rage. For a moment he didn't know who she was. This wasn't Rose Weasley. This was some crazy woman with wild red hair and feral blue eyes. And he'd never been more traumatized than he'd been in his entire life.

"Well I hope you don't mind," Rose declared, her wand flourishing as she let her hostage slam into every stone and pebble along the way. "But this is going to be a bumpy ride for you."

Then just as she reached her destination she made them both invisible. She grew mad with adrenaline rushes of power. She was going to make him cry, beg and plead for mercy, and there wasn't going to be a single ounce given. If they wanted to break her, then here is what they were going to get. They pushed, and pushed and pushed her, and now they had met her breaking point. Rose took Scorpius up all the stairs and past all the silent dormitories.

"I don't know you, so I don't know if you know where we are or not. But this is Hogwarts, and this is the Astronomy tower."

He struggled.

"Now you may be wondering, why oh why did Rose Weasley bring me here?" She laughed to herself as she sat up against the edge of the balcony. "Well I'll tell you…This was my spot with Scorpius Malfoy…We used to come here all the time and you," Her voice went into a dark, scathing voice, "_Ripped_ him from me."

"Now," She stated, her face setting in a deep frown. "I understand that this might me a little unsettling…One minute you're impersonating an Auror…and then BOOM! You're partner snatches you, busts up you're face and hauls you across the country. But do try to keep up."

There was a pause of silence and then she let out an uneven chuckle.

"Of course! You can't speak!" Rose waved her wand to unbind him. "I wouldn't get any ideas though, because you don't have a wand, and since you've probably looked at my file, you would know that I'm quicker with a wand than anyone else."

"Why am I here?" He spat out a small, but satisfying amount of blood out as he wiped his bruised jaw and made another swipe at the cut on his forehead.

Rose's dark humor fell off her face as she pushed herself off her the wall and onto her feet. "To tell me who the fuck you are."

"I don't know what medications you're on Weasley," He began in a skeptical tone, unable to hide the undertone of anxiety.

"You really want to do this?" She frowned loathingly. "Because I sincerely don't care anymore. If you don't want to tell me who you are. I won't take you to the proper authorities. I will just torture you to death."

He scoffed, "I don't believe you."

"Then why are you shaking so hard?" She shot at him bluntly.

"I don't believe you'll do it."

"Either way I'll get my answer," Rose pulled a map out of her purse, "See this? This is a map of Hogwarts, and says the name of every single person in it. It will tell me who you are regardless, so why don't you grow a spine and tell me yourself?!"

A ghost of a laugh left his lips, he hung his head with his hands raised in surrender. All efforts to fight her vanishing. "…You would corner me in a place where you could make sure I couldn't lie."

"Why do you say that like you know me?" She spat through gritted teeth. "Who ever you are, you have no idea what I'm capable of!"

"What are you going to toss me off the Astronomy tower if I don't tell you?" He laughed again, this time in amusement.

Rose let out a shudder of murderous rage, her eyes spilling tears. She said, "You people! _All. Of. My. Life._ You've been following me, torturing me. Was it any surprise that I became an Auror to fight back?...I had plans, I was going to join a Quidditch team on the weekends, and work for the Ministry during the week days…" Her voice grew stronger and stronger with hatred. "I was going to be able to live with my boyfriend and grow old with my family at my side…But you…_You people_…You have to suck the life out of anyone that isn't like you don't you?! You _have _to! Because all you are is bitter…and…and hateful!"

His eyes became conflicted as his hands gradually lowered. "Ros-"

"WHAT DID I EVER DO TO YOU?!" She roared suddenly, "WHAT DID I EVER DO TO ANY OF YOU!..." Her crying was hysterical now, but she didn't drop her wand, not even an inch. "My fa…father, Albus…and now …" She bit her lip so hard it bled. "What do you want from me? To break?! To give up?! To become as horrible and hateful as you? IS THAT WHAT YOU WANT?!"

"Rose," He breathed very carefully, "Just _look_ at the map."

"Why should I?! I should just curse you over this tower! WHY DOES IT MATTER WHO YOU ARE? I SHOULD JUST…Kill you…Like all of you want to kill me."

"Rose listen." A sad smile crept onto his face. "I told you… I'd never leave you."

* * *

There was a beat of silence. A beat in which a gust of freezing cold air shot up her lungs. The darkness of the night behind her pushed against her as his words gained meaning.

"Are you trying to tell me you're Scorpius?" Rose snapped lethally. "Because you're going to need more than a birthdate and a favorite color to get me to believe you. Death Eater's could have tortured anything out of him."

"Everything," He admitted, "but the memory of you."

Scoffing she shook her head. "Where's the real Andrews then huh?"

"On a vacation in Cuba."

"You won't convince me." She told him firmly shaking her head.

"Then," He reasoned in a calm voice, "What harm would looking at that map do? You've already disarmed me and by the time I could physically get to you, you'd already have me knocked off my feet with your wand." Again he repeated, "What harm, could it do?"

She pulled the Marauder's map out of her back pocket, muttered, 'mischief managed.' The name she saw across from hers was Scorpius Malfoy's. It was as clear as her name, but she couldn't handle the sight of it. Tears splashed down onto the map, her hands shook and she let out a wet gasp.

"You know," Scorpius spoke in his own voice. Choosing for the past few minutes to let the polyjuice potion wear off. "The first moment I realized I was in love with you was on my eighteenth birthday. And you remember what I said to you that day?"

Rose's wand dropped to the floor with a thud. She stood perfectly frozen in shock as her eyes locked on his.

"Rose?" He asked with a familiar smirk.

"You…you said, '_People are always going to try and stop us. The difference is I'm not going to let them._" She stammered uncontrollably.

"And here," He started as he walked towards her, "Is me keeping that promise."

Scorpius might have expected a lot of things, but what he didn't expect was for Rose Weasley to clock her hand back and slap him across the face.

"Are you…you serious?! You think you can just make me think you're…you're…and then just show up…WHEN I'VE CORNERED YOU! And then it's just convenient to tell me it's you?!" Rose spluttered, overcome with a wide range of emotions.

"I almost died!" Scorpius groaned throwing his hands up in frustration.

"Oh really you did? And how the hell would I know that?! For all I know you are dead." She shot back furiously, as she fought to stop sobbing.

"Except for the glaring fact that I'm standing in front of you." He scoffed.

Rose crossed her arms defiantly, "And what does that prove? For all I know-"

Impatient, Scorpius took three strides towards her; fish lined the back of her waist, swooped down and kissed her. As soon as he touched her she started crying again. Her face shuddered, as she yanked his body as close to hers as he could get. Through the tears, they kissed each other feverishly, trying to convey through every touch, every kiss just how much they missed one another.

Somehow words weren't important anymore. They just needed each other. Something they had taken for granted for the longest time was now all they needed. Even breathing the same air was enough. They both had no idea how they had gone so long without each other.

Scorpius's lips left hers, he picked her up and hugged her tightly, the side of his crying face resting on the side of hers. For a long time, he had feared he would never see her again. Never get to hold her, never get to tell her how much he loved her. Never, never, never. But now they were and they couldn't let go of each other. Not for even a millisecond.

She laughed; her cheeks ached from the new movement. "You are such a loser."

"A loser that you were willing to throw off a building a minute ago. What _was_ that?" He snorted, cradling her face. "I haven't seen you that fired up since-"

"Sod off," Rose laughed again, her entire face brightening up. "Oh you're face! I'm sorry."

"You've always been rough." He shrugged grabbing her wand to heal himself.

Her hands traced his healed skin and discovered a new scar on his face. "What happened to you Scorpius?" She whispered barely above a whisper. "_Where have you been_?"

"They did take me…" He gulped. "_Look_, we can to talk about this later. I don't want to talk right now."

Rose nodded, running her hands through his silvery blond hair. "Okay…" She bit her lip. "_Okay_…"

"I love you," He said in a choked breath, as tears of relief rolled down his pale battered cheeks. "You know that right?..._Right_?"

She nodded again, her face breaking out in a wide smile. "Of course…You idiot. I've always known that."

"Then you forgive me?"

"No!" She laughed through her tears. "I don't, but maybe after some groveling I will."

Scorpius grinned, "Want me to get you some pancakes?"

Rose picked up her wand and said, "I'd like that."


	8. Feel Again

A man, a worn and aging man wobbled up to a house he knew very well. His bright blues stared longingly at the door as he forced himself to move faster. He waited years for this. It wasn't like being starved or sleep deprived, because he knew exactly what would happened to him if he didn't sleep or get any food. This was a whole new type of pain, one that broke down his body and hardened his soul by the unexpected consequences that would follow.

He knocked on the front door, but thought it was incredibly ridiculous that he had to do so. If he could do simply whatever he wished to he would open the door, take her in his arms and be done with the whole thing. Over the lost years he often thought how stupid every minute that he spent without her was. Even know he had to be careful about how he came to see her for her safety. It was stupid and meaningless in the end, but for now it had to happen.

She came to the door, her bushy brown hair high in a ponytail, the lines in her face deeper than he last remembered. Her eyebrows furrowed, "Can I help you?"

"Mrs. Weasley I need to speak to you privately."

"What is this regarding?" She asked suspiciously, holding her wand tightly.

"Your husband."

Her throat visibly tightened as her eyes watered. "My husband is deceased."

"But they never found his body."

She glanced through his disguised face critically. "What did you say your name was?"

"I didn't, but," He lowered his voice and said something to her.

It was quiet, and so soft that no one else could have possibly heard it. Hermione Granger Weasley's brown eyes went wide as she moved aside for him to move in.

"When did he tell you that code phrase?" She asked in a rush shutting all the blinds and sound proofing the room in an instant, her whole body rigid with panic.

The man smiled, took out his wand and pointed it to his body.

Within seconds, his whole body transformed. Suddenly he grew inches taller than she and his hair lightened until it was bright red. Gasping, her eyes filled with fears as she cupped his face with shaking hands.

"RRon?!" She stammered.

"Always the tone of surprise," He smirked pulling her into his arms and letting out a small wet sob.

* * *

Rose stiffened in her sleep before jolting upward, her body laced with sweat. She let out rapid, quick breaths, not sure where she was for a second before recognizing her dresser and family pictures lining the wall.

"You okay?"

Rose gulped and jumped as she saw Scorpius half asleep right next to her. She thought at first she was seeing things, but no matter how many times she rubbed her eyes, there he remained, shirtless half under her maroon covers.

"…_What…_"

Seeing the panic in her eyes, he grabbed her hand, and kept his eyes on her. "I'm real, calm down, you aren't hallucinating.

"But…what…"

"Remember last night," He told her, now fully alert to her paling face. "You almost threw me off the astronomy tower, we came here and we fell asleep."

Rose frowned, trying to remember. She had thought it was all a dream. Something that good simply couldn't happen to her. It just couldn't. She didn't know until Scorpius wiped her face that she was shaking and crying. His steel eyes were wide with fear as shifted to circle his body around hers. It wasn't that she wasn't happy to see him, it was that she was so scared that she was finally crazy, that she had finally snapped, that she couldn't bare to look at him too long without seizing.

"Rose," His breath hitched. "You're scaring me, talk to me."

"I thought…I thought you were dead for so long…" She cried like a helpless child, her emotions open and vulnerable. "I just…This can't be real."

Scorpius scooted closer, his blonder hair falling in his eyes, as he rubbed her shoulders soothingly. "Love, look at me."

Rose's watery blue eyes centered on him.

"I'm right here." He scooped up her hand and put it on his bare chest, right by his heart. "You feel that? That's real, this is real, I'm real."

"You promise?" She asked, trembling.

He laughed stroking the tears off her face. "Yes."

"Oh…Okay." She nodded, leaning down to wipe her face to collect herself.

"Come here," Scorpius said softly gently pulling her into his chest, his arms tight around her as he kissed her forehead. "I'm real, I exist."

"Are you sure? Because I'm pretty sure you would say that even if you didn't."

"How can I prove this?" He asked pulling away.

Rose traced the scar on his face with a frown. "I don't know."

"Well I can't go back to sleep or do anything else until I know that you're okay. So we have to think of something."

"I love you," She blurted out suddenly, her eyes hard on his.

"I love you too," He cradled her into his arms, rocking her back in forth for a few seconds.

"I just keep waiting to wake up." She admitted, clutching onto him with a heavy sigh.

He curled in his lips and tightened his jaw. "Is that why you keep crying?"

"Yes."

"Because…I've never seen you cry like this."

"I'm sorry." She let out a heavy sigh, "You're right, I'm overreacting, I know that. I just…I don't know how I got by without you."

Scorpius froze; there was nothing impassive about this. Years ago when they were sixteen and seventeen she could go weeks without having the slightest clue what he felt about anything, but that boy was completely different from the man in front of her now. She saw all the years in his face. Every petty fight they'd ever had and every hardship he'd ever suffered were all clear at the surface of his pale, slightly scarred skin. But there was something else there too, a new pain, a raw unyielding pain that hurt him everyday, something that was spurred by Rose's honesty.

"Rose I need to ask you something." He told her firmly.

She frowned worriedly, her face searching his. "What is it?"

"I know I've put you through a lot, and I know we've been through a lot." Tears growing in his eyes, his voice seemed to grow stronger as he spoke. "But I love you, _so much_, and I honestly thought a few months ago when I saw you for the first time in years that I would be able to stay away from you. I thought I'd be strong enough to walk away from you. I thought that you were just a girl, but I've learned since that," He paused, his face completely exposing every ounce of emotion he was feeling for the first time…ever. "There's nothing that can keep me away from you, not really."

Rose didn't move an inch, she was crying again, but it was different type of crying.

"I love you Rose. I've loved you ever since I first kissed you in the middle of the hallway and …I _can't_ be without you. I won't function properly, I just _won't."_

Rose reached forward and grabbed his shuddering hands, interlocking their fingers.

"And I know that we haven't even been back together that long, and there's a lot we still don't know about each other, and things have changed, but…I love you, and I…I want to marry you."

"Scorpius…I gave the ring to your father." Rose told him grimacing with regret. "I didn't…I didn't think I should have it unless you gave it to me."

Scorpius grinned, his eyes shinning with pride. "I know you did." And then he went into his pants pocket and grabbed out the very familiar box.

"But…how…how did you?" She questioned in confusion, her heart catching in her chest.

"I have a lot of things to tell you. Things I didn't get a chance to talk about yesterday." He clarified his eyes completely focused on hers. "But before we get to everything else, I can't hold back on this anymore-"

"How long have you had that ring?" Rose asked biting her lip in overwhelming shock.

He snorted, "After I found out you were alive."

"That long?!"

"Yes." He said with conviction.

"Are you absolutely sure Scorpius?" Rose reconfirmed, her jaw tightening as her hands curled around her mouth. "Because-"

He cupped her face fiercely, his face inches from hers. "Rose Weasley, I have _never _been more sure about _anything_ in my life. The question is, will-you marry-me?"

Rose paused for a brief second, before throwing her arms around him, a large grin on her face. "I don't even care if this isn't real! I will gladly be mad!"

"Is that a yes?" Scorpius questioned.

"_Of course it is!_" She cried crushing her lips against his, and getting her body as close to his as humanly possible as she kissed him over and over again.

He laughed, his face full of delight. "Don't you want to see the ring?"

"I can see it later!" She said flippantly, not letting any space getting in between them. "It doesn't matter to me right now. Right now I want to snog my fiancée."

"Please, just let me do one thing the right way." Scorpius told her as he opened the box, and slipped the stunning silver, diamond traced ring on her left index finger. The sight made him glow with pride.

"Merlin…this is…beautiful." She gasped, in amazement. "I…_thank you_…I can't believe this…"

He pressed his lips to her urgently, his body forcing her back down on the surface of the bed. "Believe it, Mrs. Malfoy."

"We will see about that." Rose chuckled knowingly, as he hovered above her.

He beamed, cupping her face. "I will have you agree to take my last name soon enough."

"We will see about that Malfoy-"

Her response was cut off, as he dropped his entire body down on hers. It didn't take anytime at all for her to respond, her lips reacted to his willingly. Her hands gripped onto his bare back, her legs binded around his waist and his tongue darted into her mouth. She groaned against his lips, her chest arching into his.

She didn't care anymore. If she was crazy, let her be crazy. At least she would have this to hold onto. No one would ever or could ever make her feel the way he was making her feel now. It was like her every time he touched her or kissed her, was marked irrevocably his, burned forever as places he'd been.

Rose never had believed much in marriage, or in the type of relationship she had with Scorpius, but here it was and she couldn't fight it. All her life she wanted children and a career, and somehow her priorities had shifted and changed. She wouldn't give up her career or having children, but she wouldn't have to. She could have both.

Every kiss reminded her of what they had lost and gained, making everything electric. Soon they were ravenous and forceful with one another, throwing each other around the bed, not as cautious as they normally would be with one another. The time to be gentle and hesitant was over. The time to show each other every degree of love and affection they felt had arrived.

They didn't care that they both would have to be to work in only a few short hours. The world could fall down around them literally and they wouldn't stop.

* * *

"What are we going to do?" Rose asked, lying back on his arm, cuddling into his chest, as they lay naked under the covers of her bed.

He brushed his lips on the top of her forehead just below her hairline. "We are going to go to work, and act like we did every day before yesterday."

"How am I supposed to treat you like that?" She scoffed.

"You can do it." He reassured her, "Until we find out where they are hitting from we need as many eyes out as possible."

Rose frowned, and closed her eyes. "We could call in sick."

"We could," He smiled, almost admitting defeat, "but we can't."

"Ugh! This is so stupid." Rose groaned into his shoulder.

He tipped her head to kiss her lightly. Then he drifted away and rested his forehead on hers. "Soon, we will be away from all of this."

"Do you're parents know?"

"My father does." Scorpius said coldly, his eyes turning distant until Rose touched the side of his face.

Rose sighed, "We will get through this. Okay? Together."

"Together," He agreed.

Rose climbed on top of him, her legs straddling his hips as she kissed him soundly until both of their lips were red and swollen. Neither one of them could keep a smile of their faces for long. They knew there were still many wars to fight and that nothing was over, but being together was enough to sustain them through it for now.

"We have to go," Scorpius laughed, as he gently grazed his lips along the crook of her neck.

"Then quit kissing me!" Rose giggled, swatting him away.

He grabbed her hands with a grin. "I can't!"

"Well I don't that problem," She said swooping down to kiss him again and again. "But we are never going to leave this bed."

"You know? …I'm sure we could say we were looking up a lead or something." Scorpius mentioned his fingers tracing her collarbone as he eyed her body longingly.

"ROSE!" A loud knock echoed on her front door.

"SHIT!" Rose fell off her bed with a thump, and ran to throw on some clothes.

Scorpius did the same at warped speed.

"ROSE! COME ON! OPEN UP!"

"What the hell is James doing here?" Scorpius said in a furious hushed voice as he hiked his dress pants back on.

"I don't have the foggiest." She groaned pulling on a shirt, shorts and underwear. Running up to the front door she even tried to tame her hair, but she knew it was useless.

Taking a beat to collect herself, Rose steadied her breathing and kicked Scorpius's shoes out of the doors line of vision. He probably was just stopping by to check on her. James would most likely only be here for a few seconds and then she would be able to find an excuse to kick him out.

"What's up cousin?" Rose asked blocking the doorway with her body, an extremely guilty look on her flushed face.

James eyed her. "Why aren't you inviting me in?"

"Why should I be inviting you in?"

He looked her over for a second before laughing. "Nice hickey."

"WHAT?!" Rose panicked her hand flying to her neck.

James pushed her out of the way with a snort, and waltzed in just as Scorpius rounded out of her bedroom in the dress robes he was wearing the night before.

"You couldn't last huh?" James asked Scorpius with an amused smirk, as he leaned against the kitchen island.

"Sod off." Scorpius glared at him half-heartedly.

"YOU KNEW?!" Rose questioned suddenly, her eyes full of rage. "AND YOU KEPT IT FROM ME?!"

"UM were you planning on telling me he was alive?" James countered with raised eyebrows.

"That's completely different," She insisted.

James rolled his eyes. "I fail to see how."

"Because he's my fiancée, and you guys are frie-"

He took a step back in shock, his jaw slacking. "He's your WHAT?"

Rose held up the back of her left hand, with a dirty look, "Obviously I can't wear it at work, but-" She was cut off again by James.

He ran around the kitchen counter and seized them both in a crushing hug. He let out a squeal of excitement and squished their cheeks animatedly.

"I'M SO HAPPY FOR YOU TWO!"

"Thanks James," Rose blushed as he pulled her into a separate tight hug.

"And you," James clamped his hand on Scorpius's shoulder, his brown eyes narrowing at him. "I'm not going to even say it, but you know."

Scorpius nodded seriously, but then laughed. "Yes Potter, I believe I've got it."

"Well!" James clapped his hands together. "I can't wait to shag all the single ladies at your wedding-"

Rose let out a low note of disapproval. "Yeah, no... Why did you come over James?"

"Well," His face darkened and he crossed his arms as he looked down at her. "I came here to tell you, there's some guy telling Aunt Hermione that he's Uncle Ron."

Rose scoffed flippantly. "Why are we even entertaining this? I _saw_ him die."

"Either way we have to find out what's going on."

"I have to be at work in thirty minutes." Rose stated checking her watch.

James shrugged carelessly, "I already owled in and said that I was using you to work on a case."

"I'll go in to work and see if I overhear anything useful." Scorpius said, grabbing his flash of polyjuice potion.

Rose visibly grimaced at the sight of it.

Scorpius gave her a look and held her shoulders in front of him. "It's still me, remember that."

"I know," She grumbled. "I just…Jake Andrews is kind of a dick."

Laughing Scorpius kissed her, and hugged her tightly before taking a day's dose of his potion and transforming into a completely different person. His blond hair was darker and thicker, his clothes suddenly fit better, and she was no longer looking into steel eyes. He should have left immediately, but he stayed in front of Rose. She reached forward and took his hand, squeezing it in reassurance.

"Merlin's beard! Would you leave?! She'll be with me the whole day!" James rolled his eyes.

Scorpius laughed and kissed her once more. "You'd think that would make it easier."

"Go, i'll see you later." She promised.

He then grabbed his wand and left with a nod to James.

"I swear," Rose sighed as she sorted through her clothes to find proper clothes to wear. "This week just keeps getting weirder and weirder."

"Think about it this way…what if your dad is alive."

She frowned as she pulled a blouse over her head and jumped into some dress trousers. "I just can't think that way. I just got Scorpius back; I can't allow the idea of my father being alive. I couldn't handle it being taken away."

"Well," James shrugged handing her a fall jacket. "Why don't we just go and see what's going on and then we will go from there?"

"Okay," Rose let out a slow breath. "I got this."

He smirked and wrapped his arm around her. "Of course you do...Mrs. Malfoy…"

"No one should call me that. Besides I'm not married yet…" Rose blushed, "Which reminds me, I have to take this off."

Rose placed the ring back in its box begrudgingly and put the box in her bedside table drawer. She stared at it for a moment, before shutting the drawer and walking out to join James. Her father was dead. She remembered it so vividly that she didn't even acknowledge the idea that it could be true. Instead she thought of who would be trying to get infiltrate into her family now, and how she would deal with that.

Rose cleared her throat as they paused at the apparation line. "I want you to do all the talking. I'm just going to observe."

"Don't forget to cover up your hickey."

"Fuck you James."


	9. No Church in The Wild

Scorpius went into work like he normally did. Nothing was off or different at all, but he still felt on edge. He couldn't allow himself to calm down. It was an overall rule with him and Rose, whenever anything was working out, whenever anything was going remotely well, everything tended to come crashing down, and he would be damned if that happened this time around.

At that thought he remembered what she looked like when she saw the ring, when she agreed to be his wife. Scorpius never considered himself a romantic person. He always thought everything had a purpose and marriage was included in that. In his opinion, what most people do is they get married, have kids, so that when they are old they have someone to take care of them and continue on the legacy. But over the years he had started see another reason besides the functional purpose of things and he actually wanted to be her husband. He wanted to have the wedding, wear the ring, and see her in the dress. For once he wanted them to do one thing like normal people do. No wars, no blood, just one day where they didn't have to hide or lie, they could just be two people that wanted to be together.

For anyone else that wouldn't be a lot to ask. He knew a lot of his old friends who were or had already gotten married and it was simple, the boy asked the girl, they had a ceremony and they were done with it. But nothing had ever been that simple between the two of them. Half the time it seemed they were a step from complete and total disaster. There was still a million things he wanted to tell her and a few things he still had yet to fully explain, but for now just the mere memory of her accepting his offer wasn't just enough to keep him going, it was enough to make him believe that they were going to make it. And that would be the first time in their entire relationship that he allowed himself to feel that way.

As he began working on his paperwork, he grinned to himself and mindlessly played back the events from the morning in his head. He knew it would be difficult not to smile at her when she came in, but Scorpius also knew that it wouldn't be as hard as the weeks before it had been. At least now when he treated her like she was just his partner she knew the truth and could hold onto that fact like a lifeline.

* * *

Rose did as James instructed. She walked into her childhood home and just looked at the man who claimed to be her father. She knew it must have been a polyjuice potion, but it didn't stop her arms from trembling at the sight of him. For a split second, just a moment really, she almost ran into his arms, but his back was turned and before he could see her standing there she left the house. For a minute she almost went back to being the girl she was when he was alive, the girl who was naïve and believed that her father would always come home. That girl was long gone, and this man's presence now meant one thing, trouble.

She gripped James's arm tightly, and lead him a considerable distance from the house.

"Okay there are two possible scenarios," Rose began in a harsh voice, as she tried to slow her words down enough not to sound as frantic as she felt. "One is that, sitting in there is a man or woman with some connection to Death Eater's that is luring us into a trap."

James tensed up, his mind moving a million miles per minute. "And the second option is, that it really is your father and they let him go to cause a diversion."

"Either way," Rose began skeptical on the second option, "You need to go alert Scorpius and keep a look out for what they're trying to do."

James sighed, running a hand through his unruly hair, his brown eyes narrowing in annoyance. "We never just have an easy day do we?"

Rose cracked her neck and let out a small humorless laugh. "I feel like we almost should have warning labels tattooed on us from birth."

James smiled at that, and then he pulled her into a typical James hug, all heart and soul. "You be careful, you hear?"

"I will." Rose nodded. "And I'll stay for a while so they think I fell for it."

"Rose," James began, "What are you going to do if that's really your dad?"

Rose's eyes burned with the anticipation of that very possibility. She raised her hands and dropped them with a hopeless look on her face. "I dunno…I just…I dunno." Then she laughed a hollow laugh earning an odd look from James.

"What is it?"

"I was just remembering when my biggest problem was if my father finding out if I was dating Scorpius…"

James paused, eyeing her house and then eyeing her softly. "I forgot you two used to date back at Hogwarts."

"Yeah…" She shook her head trying to rid the memory of Scorpius throwing her around the Black Lake, but unable to.

"Everything's going to be okay." He reassured her putting his hands on her shoulders like Albus used to. "You know that right?"

Looking up at him, her hands stopped shaking and she took a slow breath. "Yes. I know that." She lied perfectly.

"Then shake off whatever your feeling, go in there and prove that you are an Auror. Go show the bad guys why they fear you and more importantly," He lowered his voice, "show them why you're still alive."

Empowered by his brief little speech, Rose pulled him into a big warm hug and let out a soothing breath. "We'll get through this."

Pulling away, James ruffled her hair with a smirk. "Of course we will. We are Weasley's after all."

"You're only half." She pointed out teasingly.

"Yes but it would have been a hassle to say Potter/Weasley. We need to make like a hybrid family last name or something."

"When we get back," She promised moving away from him. "Don't forget what I said."

"I won't." He winked, "Give them hell Weasley."

Rose smiled and charged back towards her house with a new sense of security.

* * *

"I need to talk to you." James told Scorpius briskly.

Scorpius looked up, his face impassive. "What do you need to talk to me about Potter?"

"In private." James clarified, subtly glancing at the people around them.

Rising from his desk, Scorpius forced his expression to seem impatient and bored as his Jake Andrews would at the news. "What is it Potter?"

James locked the door to the filing room and casted a spell to keep others from hearing. "We have a problem."

"What? Is Rose alright?" Scorpius questioned immediately dropping any pretense he held seconds before.

"A man claiming to be her father is at her mother's house, and he looks like him, which means-"

"That he has to be alive," Scorpius finished, "Because it's either him or someone else pretending to be and in order to make a polyjuice the other person has to be alive…They've kept him all this time?" He breathed in horror.

James nodded, his thin face turning grim. "Which means that they must be making a stand today, because otherwise why would they let him go now?"

Scorpius's heart raced as he paced the room, clamping his hand on his mouth. "Is Rose with him now?"

"She's pretending to believe it to buy us time to figure out what they are going to do, but I don't know how long she'll be able to keep them at bay."

"You have to talk to your father," Scorpius announced, "He's been out of the loop on everything and it's time to tell him."

James nodded, "I'll talk to him, but you have to keep an eye out. They still don't know who you are."

Scorpius let out a low breath. "Okay, send me an owl if anything changes."

"Will do, and Scorpius," James paused before he took off the enchantments. "Be careful."

"You too." Scorpius muttered before fleeing the room.

* * *

"You aren't my father," Rose stated coolly, stand back against the kitchen counter, her face impassive. Her mother stood on the edge of the room anxiously watching them.

Ron scoffed throwing his scared pale hands up. "Well I'm glad we cleared that up."

"Do you know what I do for a living?" She questioned bluntly. "I'm an Auror."

"I never wanted this for you." He told her seriously. "I wanted you to have a safe job."

"Well so did I." Rose admitted, her tone cold as she just everything in her power not to fall for this trick. "I never wanted to be an Auror. I liked that the most complicated thing in my life was that my father didn't approve of my dating choices, but things change and I had to change with it."

His eyes grew somber at that comment. "I never wanted our lives to affect you."

"Well you were ignorant then, because there's no way you can be a Potter or a Weasley without being tainted by it."

He mouth opened to retort, but she spoke quickly to cut him off.

"Did you know that Albus was murdered?"

His throat caught in his chest and his face looked more haggard and worn. "No…I didn't."

"Well as I said, things have changed and you are not my father." Rose said leaning back, with her hands pressed together. "So why don't we just cut to the chase and you tell me what master plan you all have to torture my blood traitor family?"

"Rose-"

"Come on," She cooed with a smile. "You know you want to tell me. I know the best part of being a horrible person is telling people what you are going to do and seeing the horrified look on their faces. So come on."

He sighed and gave her a look. "Rose, I'm not a Death Eater-"

"Then why are you here?" She countered reasonably, "I saw my father die. So maybe they kept him alive in order to be able to do this, but if that's so what is your purpose in being here?"

Ron's blue eyes locked onto Hermione to get her on his side.

"You can look at my mother all you want, but she isn't the one controlling this situation, I am. So you better start talking or you are going to start losing some toes."

He laughed at that, relaxing in his chair. "You think I'm going to fall for that? This good cop bad cop routine? We learned it day one in training. Besides you aren't capable of hurting an innocent person."

"You are fair from innocent... Wow they didn't tell you about me did they?"

"What are you talking about?"

She laughed at him, her laugh cold enough to drive the amusement from his face. "I've gone rouge. I kill whatever and whomever I have to. So you might want to start speaking, because I have no qualms hurting you. You broke into my mother's house and since we are always under attack, no one would blame me for protecting her." Rose's eyes sliced into him as she added, "By, _any means_, necessary."

* * *

Scorpius couldn't help it; there wasn't a good reason in the world his parents would have to come to the Auror department. So the minute he saw them he rose to his feet and followed them. He should have waited till they came to him. He should have not made it urgent, but he couldn't stop himself. They were in danger if they were here, and he couldn't have that happen.

"Excuse me." He said in a rude voice to stop them both from entering the Auror department. "Weasley asked me if you two showed up to insist you leave the ministry at once."

His father was instantly offended by his son's tone; he straightened his back and looked down at him. "And who are _you_?"

"Jake Andrews." Scorpius lied, "She said she would owl you both in the morning with some sort of explanation."

"But she just sent us an owl saying she had a breakthrough and found Scorpius." Astoria insisted, her dark eyes desperate.

Scorpius tensed, knowing Rose would never have sent a letter to his parents like that without his consent. "Well she is not here at the moment and won't be back for some time, but I will tell her you were here."

Draco looked livid that a lower life form was talking to him with him and his wife in this manner. His mouth opened but he seemed to think better of it and said to his wife, "Come on Astoria."

"But-" She cried.

"I'm sure Rose will contact us in the morning."

Though it was horribly odd for Scorpius to hear his father refer to his fiancée by her first name, but that feeling faded as relief rose inside of him watching his parents leave safely. He shifted to move away, ignoring the pain at seeing his mother cry over him when a blond moved in front of him. His hand wrapped around his wand instantly as he saw the smirk grow on her face.

"Can I help you?" He shot at her feigning ignorance.

Rachel shrugged, her blond hair cradling her face. "Well I don't know Scorpius. Can you?"

"What are you-" He began, but stopped as he saw two Death Eater sympathizers walk past them with his parents held at one point.

"You really thought we didn't know?" She laughed coldly her icy eyes stabbing through him as she stepped forward. "We have this whole place surrounded Malfoy." Then Rachel whispered, "This ends_ today_."


	10. Skyfall

"You are probably wondering why I am helping them." Rachel began as one of the men raised his wand to tie the Malfoy's to the base of Scorpius's desk.

"No," Scorpius snapped, his blond hair falling into his face as he shifted on the floor furiously. "I'm actually wondering what the hell I've ever done to you to endorse this degree of hatred."

"Oh no," She corrected him wavy her finger, "I don't hate you …or Rose for that matter."

"Then why-" He began, but stopped as he watched one of the men, who seemed to be the leader, pause to pull Rachel into a tight embrace. It was then he noticed the ring on her left hand that had not been there months before. "…_Oh_."

Rachel smirked while her husband pulled away, arrogance settled onto her features. "Where was I?"

"You were about to explain what was going to happen to us next," Astoria interjected dryly, wedged between her son and husband.

"Ah, yes! Thank you Mrs. Malfoy…Well we will be murdering Harry Potter and at least one of you will die this evening."

"What's the excuse now?" Scorpius shot, "The war is over and two months ago we killed most of your people."

"That was our ranks at half force," Rachel's husband appeared, with a sneer. "Now we are all here and accounted for."

Scorpius craned his neck to see only fifteen Death Eater sympathizers tying up the Auror's that were present. "I don't see too many of your kind, not enough to hold back enough of the ministry by far."

"Well that's the thing of it; if we corner enough groups then we cover the entire ministry."

Scorpius frowned as the truth sunk in. If four people were surrounded by two people threatening them the procedure at the ministry was to stand down, and do whatever they were told. They were instructed to let law enforcement handle it and not fight back to avoid casualties. The problem with this was that this situation wasn't designed to elicit a ransom or get something in return. It was designed to damage the Ministry and kill any heroes from the war, at any cost possible. Scorpius shouldn't have had to be worried about his welfare, but as a child of a _'war traitor,'_ his head, along with his family's was on the chopping block right along with any Potter, Weasley or Longbottom.

When they were left alone, his mother rested her small head on her shoulder for a few moments. "I'm so glad you are alive dear," Her voice was thick with tears, "I was so worried-"

"Don't cry mum," He told her, stretching out his binds to kiss her forehead. "I love you."

"I love you …too." She trembled beside him.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you-"

"You were trying to protect me," She laughed lightly, "I'm not mad…Well I'm in a right state at your father for not telling me, but I understand why…And…and," She sniffed, "I'm proud of you for it. I'm proud of who you have become."

"Mum-" He beamed, his eyes glistening.

"No I mean it. I never got a chance to tell you…and I've regretted it every since." She let out a low breath, "Also I like Rose. I think you made a good choice there."

"Well about that…I probably should mention…we're engaged."

For a second he thought his mother didn't hear, but then he heard her crying grow louder and his stomach clenched in guilt.

"Mum, it's good news. Why are you crying?"

"Becccause, I'm happy," She stammered with a bright smile. "I've always just wanted you to be happy and now you are."

Scorpius rested his head on his mother's, her body resting on his side. He didn't know what to say. He knew his father was less than thrilled about his fiancée, but he didn't expect this reaction from his mother. She was normally warm, but controlled. Even when he was little and she would take him to carnivals and amusement parks, she would look so prim and proper as she ate cotton candy and held his hand on all the rides. It never occurred to Scorpius that her desire for him would be so simple and fulfilled by Rose. The thought made him happy in a way he would never be able to articulate.

He just sat there, while most of his colleagues were tied up and dropped on front of their respective desks. There was nothing he could do, so Scorpius didn't ignore what his mother had said like he might have in another situation, instead he took it fully to heart.

"So it's official then?" His father asked him suddenly.

Scorpius scoffed, "Yes father."

"…Alright."

"Alright?" Scorpius questioned suspiciously.

Draco sighed, "Scorpius, I'm being held hostage in the middle of Ministry. You should take my 'alright,' as a good sign considering the circumstances."

"I guess I'll take what I can get," Scorpius sighed.

"Any ideas how we are going to get out of this?"

Scorpius scrunched up his face and scanned the room for an idea. "I'm working on it."

"Well you might want to work faster," Draco said, anxiety apparent in hisf voice, "because they just dragged Potter out of his office. He's bleeding all over the place."

He couldn't see what his father was talking about. So he asked, "Which Potter?"

"Harry Potter." Astoria answered softly as the men dragged him across the room, screaming and struggling.

* * *

"Honey," Hermione pulled her daughter aside with a grim expression on her face, "If he hasn't said anything by now-"

"It's only been five minutes since we've given him the veritaserum," Rose said in a squeaky voice, "Maybe it just needs some time to kick in…"

"Rose," She began, holding her daughters shoulders to focus her attention, "He is a low level Death Eater. They would have only told him enough to get into the house, but nothing you could have tortured out of him."

Rose bit her lip, releasing a slow unsteady breath, her crimson hair falling into her face as the panic began to rise within her. "Okay…Okay…What the bloody hell do I do then?"

"Take him to the Ministry." Hermione stated with a shrug, her brown eyes sagging slightly.

"I can't." Rose frowned leaning against the doorway of the living room. "There's a reason he's here. They wouldn't have just sent him for no reason. They want me to take him to the Ministry….I just have to figure out why…"

"Well take your time, because we want to be sure about this."

"Have you gotten any owls since I've gotten here?" Rose asked thinking of James.

Hermione shook her head, her bushy hair swaying in the process. "Nothing why?"

"No it's probably a good thing…" She muttered distractedly. "I guess just go …watch him and I'll try to figure something out."

Kissing her daughters forehead she paused in the door way, her face trouble. "If they are able to use a polyjuice potion…you know that means your father is alive…"

Rose's eyes watered and she nodded shakily. "I can't even think about that, because that just…that opens up a whole other thing of emotions I can't even get into right now."

"Whatever you do, be careful."

"I will." Rose vowed moving into the next room, with a fixed look of determination on her paling face.

* * *

"What kind of procedure is this?" Lauren scoffed, following the Ministry task force irritably, her long blond hair coming out of it's previously secure hair tie.

"Listen, I'm not a ministry official. I just came to have lunch with my friend here." Kelly told one of them as they headed her in with the rest of them. "I have rounds in…shit…two minutes. Please-"

One stopped her and set her with a hard look. "This is not debatable. Move."

Kelly froze, her brown eyes widening and her small stature curling up next to Lauren. The man who had stopped her kept walking. Lauren snatched Kelly's wrist, towering over Kelly in her heels she thought quickly.

"Kelly, this isn't right." Lauren lowered her voice glancing anxiously at the head of the line, "No ministry official would talk to us like that…and I don't know what they are doing up there, but I think they might be collecting wands."

"What do we do?"

Lauren gulped and glanced around. "Rose will be here somewhere so she can't help us. Who do we know outside of the ministry that could help?"

"We could ask Hugo." Kelly grimaced.

"…Or we could ask anybody else."

"He's a Weasley, with a direct line to anyone that could help us and the one person if something's going down they wouldn't think to watch him. You know they'd watch Lily, she's Harry Potter's daughter for Merlin's sake."

"And he's Ron Weasley's son. I don't see-"

"You know I'm right! And we don't have time to argue about this. Either we do something or we just give into this!" Kelly whispered harshly. "I'm getting married in two-days. I don't have time for whatever bullshit this is Lauren!"

"Fine!" Lauren sighed haughtily, "Do something and I'll find a way out of here."

"Like what?"

"I don't know!" Lauren said slipping off her heels and gripping her wand. "Use your imagination!"

Kelly brushed a hand through her black hair and pressed her lips together. This was not a task that should have been hers. Distraction, creativity those were things that would have come more naturally for Lauren or Rose, but it made more sense for Lauren to go. She knew the ways around the ministry, was much more stealthy than Kelly. But as Kelly moved closer to the next room, she panicked as she tried to think of something dramatic enough to give Lauren leeway to leave. Finally she thought of something that would be enough to work. Subtly she took out her wand and whispered, "Incendio."

"MERLIN! LOOK! EVERYONE OH NO!" Kelly screamed, knocking the three people in front of her over as the fire grew large enough to swallow a filing cabinet whole.

Panic filled the room as everyone who was cooperating perfectly began to run from the flames, forgetting that they were witches and wizards entirely. Through the chaos Lauren snuck out of the room and turned herself invisible. While she walked through the Ministry she noticed that with the exception of the direction she had just come from, the entire ministry was silent. There was no one in any of the offices she passed and when she made it to the main floor she began to think maybe they were wrong. Maybe this was just a drill; maybe they were crazy and overreacted. Maybe she had spent too many years with Rose and always assumed everything was the worst.

Her bare feet didn't make a sound on the tiled floor as she curled around the Auror offices to get to the floo network. So when she did hear a noise, she jumped and backed up against a wall fearing whatever had screamed would be close. What Lauren didn't expect was for the screaming to continue. That was when she realized someone was being tortured.

Quickly she managed to get to the apparation point and prayed that Kelly was right about Hugo.

* * *

Scorpius flinched as they sent another cruciatus curse through Harry Potter, setting his very bones on fire. There was absolutely nothing he could do, his wand, like everyone else's were taken and well out of reach. He was attached to a desk that was permanently glued to the floor. His options were none existent. They could murder him right there and then, and there was nothing he could do. He had to think of something, he couldn't just sit there and let this happen. His mother was shaking and sobbing next to him. He had to do something.

"How did you know who I was?" Scorpius asked Rachel hoping to draw her close enough to get her wand.

Rachel said simply. "I was going to just kill her and get her out of the way, but then I watched how you reacted and the way you jumped in after her…You _had_ to be Scorpius."

He needed her to move just foot closer that was all. "And why does it matter if I was there? You could have killed us both."

She paused, and looked at his mother, her face tightening in discomfort. "I'm not a murderer."

"Then help us." Scorpius whispered, his steel eyes boring into her. "They are going to kill everyone here whether they were involved in the war or not. Are you really going to do nothing?"

She hesitated, her blue eyes flickering over to Harry Potter's slumped form across the room. "I …_I can't._"

"Rachel," Scorpius said clearly, "Look at me."

Rachel twitched, but then looked at his face, her face contorted.

"Just get my parents out and release me. I'll knock you out and make it look like you didn't get a choice." Scorpius pleaded with her. "Please Rachel. You don't want to do this. You don't want to have these peoples deaths on your conscience."

Her mouth opened and Scorpius knew he got through to her.

"What's going on here?" Rachel's husband demanded his dark eyes slitting under his Death Eater mask.

"Nothing." She flinched, putting on a forced smile.

"Well, why don't we make sure?" He flicked his wand at them and gripped Astoria and ripped her away from them.

"NO NOOO!" She screamed thrashing in his arms. "Let go of me!"

"RACHEL DO SOMETHING!" Scorpius roared, his became beat red as he violently fought against his binds.

Astoria was dragged through the middle of the aisle way, but the Death Eater's didn't notice as they walked that the screaming had stopped. They had assumed there was a perfectly good reason. Not a single one of them thought that there could be a problem. That was until they began to notice that the hostages that had been attached to desks were gone.

"Wait a minute…What's-?"

The man that had been gripping Astoria's arm was knocked to the floor, by a small, but powerful punch. The other three turned, but were blasted back against the wall. The last man standing turned, his wand raised threateningly.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Rose spat, her cheek bleeding as her wand stabbed into his throat. "I've blasted through half the Ministry. I have no problem adding you to the list of casualties."

He feigned putting his arm down and then swiftly moved to hit Rose. She immediately spun him around; broke his leg and snapped his wand. Screams followed them, "You should have just surrendered." She shook out her now bruised hand and turned to Astoria. Gently she held Astoria's shaking shoulders. "Are you alright?"

"No…I'm fine. We have to find Scorpius and Draco."

"Hugo went back there." Rose anchored her arm around Astoria's waist to help her move away as fast as humanly possible. "Let's get you safe."

Astoria stumbled and winced. Rose's face dropped in concerned. "Is it your calf?"

"I think I just scraped my leg on something…What happened?"

"James managed to sneak out with a bunch of Auror's and I met up with Hugo." She panted, "We will take care of this."

Astoria grimaced eyeing Rose. "Are you alright? You're bleeding!"

"I'm fine. It's more important," Rose groaned stopping in her Uncle's office. "That I get out you of the way and go help."

"Scorpius told me about you two," Astoria said, her eyes watering with excitement.

Rose grinned, "I will be back and we will talk about this more. You stay hidden in here okay?"

"I'm very capable-"

"You don't have a wand." Rose reasoned, "Please just-"

"WEASLEY!"

"Shit," Rose shoved Astoria behind the grand desk and began dueling two wizards at once. Quickly one dropped, but the other was faster and ready for the fight.

* * *

In the distance, Astoria could hear screaming and crashing; her hair fell out of the sleek bun it had been in and she flattened herself under the desk. Rose flew backwards after being unable to deflect a hex. She dropped to the floor, blood pouring out from her chest, her body writhing in pain. Astoria couldn't stay hidden, she rushed out grabbing Rose's wand.

"Petrificus Totalus!" She shot at the man. His legs and arms snapped together as he fell. "Rose! Merlin!...What is that spell…damn it…what is it…"

"It's…" Rose choked, tears running through the blood stains on her cheeks, "Vulner…Vulner…"

"Wait! I know!" Astoria cleared her throat and pointed her wand at Rose's chest. "Vulnera Sanentur….Vulnera Sanentur…Vulnera Sanentur…Oh thank Merlin, it's working!"

"Good job," Rose smiled weakly as the color began come back to her face. "Thank you."

Rose's chest ascended and fell more slowly then seconds before. The internal cut was healed and the deep slash across her chest was still raw, but was no longer bleeding. Her blouse was soaked in blood and she felt weak. Her whole face was sweating so hard, her hairline was drenched and her eyes told her the room was moving.

"Astoria, you have to lock the door and …" Rose gasped, collecting her breath, "Stay away from the windows ...okay."

"I won't leave you dear." Astoria took her hand and wiped the blood off her cheeks.

Rose smiled, but then she heard a noise, "What-"

"Avada Kedavra." A voice barked shooting an emerald light that reflected through the room.

Rose glanced up and watched as the life left Astoria and she fell, her body dropping onto Rose's stomach. "No….NO…NO! _No!_"

She shook Astoria, willing her to wake, but it didn't happen. Gently Rose shifted Astoria beside her to the floor. Her dark eyes were still open, her make-up still in place in spite of everything that happened to her.

"This is the end of the road Weasley," Rachel sighed holding her wand up with a grim expression in the doorway.

Rose took a second, one brief second to think. She thought about just giving up and joining Astoria. What was the point anymore? She was exhausted and she had fought hard. And yet another person had died for her so why not end it all now?

But then she looked up at Rachel's face and everything became clear. If she didn't get up, if she didn't stop Rachel then Astoria... Astoria just died for nothing.

"I'm sorry it has to end this way." Rachel declared thinking Rose was unarmed.

"Well," Rose said stretching for her wand, "I'm not."

Rose ducked as Rachel sent a killing curse at her and then said, "Avada Kedavra."

There was a look of pure shook on Rachel's face, before she fell backwards making a low, but final thud. Rose gasped and struggled to sit up, her body was weighed down to the floor and every move she made exhausted her. She looked at Astoria's still body and cried silently to herself. She didn't know what to do, she couldn't move, she couldn't leave her.

"Rose-!" Scorpius shouted skidding to the door, his nose looked broken and his cheek was bruised. He looked from Rachel's body to Rose's face and then his face dropped. "…What…are you okay?!"

Stepping over Rachel he rushed to her side, but halted in his tracks when he saw who was next to her. "No."

"I'm sorry…I'm so sorry…I was hit…and she was healing me…and Rachel…" Rose sobbed gesturing to Rachel's body in the doorway. "I…It's my fault. I should have …I don't know what I could have done, but I could have …_I'm sorry_ Scorpius."

He lowered to the ground gradually, his hair was askew, and his steel eyes were blood shot and his eyes overflowed with tears, his face shuddered while he rocked back and forth. Rose grabbed his hand feebly and he gripped her hand lightly. For a few minutes they said nothing, they just cried.


	11. Carry On

"Scorpius," Rose mumbled into her pillow, "Stop staring at me."

He stroked her hair, "I'm just making sure you're okay."

"I had three healers check me out and stayed for observation for six hours. I've gotten about seven hours of sleep which is twice as much as I have been getting for the past few months." She informed him, with her eyes still closed. "I'm fine."

"Okay…"

Rose let out a small sigh and opened her eyes to give him a reassuring look. "Scorpius I'm perfectly fine. I have a scar, but other than that there is no lasting damage."

He nodded, his jaw clenched in anxiety.

"Did you sleep at all?" She questioned tentatively, brushing his cheek with her thumb.

"No. I couldn't." He answered flatly.

She frowned, but said nothing. There was nothing she could say. The fact was in two days time he would attend his mother's funeral and until then they would just be grieving with no outlet for their feelings.

"Well I'm going to take a shower, and get dressed. I have to get a lot of things in order."

"Like?"

"You think we can just pull the stunt we pulled without repercussions?" She scoffed, shifting the covers off of her. "And Kelly's wedding is tomorrow, and as Maid of Honor I have to make sure that goes smoothly."

"You are supposed to be helping today aren't you?" He asked distantly.

"No," Rose turned to face him and added, "Today I'm supposed to be with you."

A ghost of a smile flickered on his face right before she bent down and kissed him firmly on the lips. His arms slowly wrapped around her, holding her on his bare chest. It wasn't how they usually kissed, there was still the warm familiarity and the jolt of adrenaline as her arms curled around his back, but they both knew that they were both too depressed and tired for it to go any farther. Never before had they had something that weighed heavily on them both for this to occur, but it was all right, because that wasn't what either of them needed.

Promptly, she pulled away, resting her forehead on his while his arms hung around the back of her waist. "I love you."

He gave her a tiny grin. "I love you too."

"You try and get some sleep okay?"

"I will." He tugged her back towards him and held her firmly for a few more minutes.

She laid her head in the crook of his neck and traced small circles in his back. Rose waited until he released her to go and Scorpius took a few minutes to do so, when he did he finally looked like he was calm enough to sleep.

Rose took a long shower and changed into some jeans, a white tank top and an open violet blouse. There was an urge for her to put her hair up, but instead she decided to French braid her tumbled crimson hair. When she finished she did everything she said she would and made meals for Scorpius to heat up tomorrow incase he didn't feel like leaving to go get food.

It was starting to get dark out; she leaned on the bedroom doorway and listened to the sound of Scorpius gently snoring in the next room. He was so tired. She was glad he had finally given in to sleep. He needed it.

A loud knock echoed on her door, rolling her eyes, she shut the bedroom door and let her older cousin inside. James gave her a warm smile and shut the door behind him.

"How is he?" James asked, the concern clear on his face as he gestured to the bedroom.

Rose shook her head, placing her fist on her chin. "He's sleeping…It took him all night to fall asleep."

"We found your father," James began cautiously, reading her reaction carefully.

"How…" She clenched her eyes shut, released a slow shaky breath and then asked, "How is he?"

"Alive…a little deranged, but alive. They put him in the same hospital room as my dad."

"How's your dad doing? I owled my mum, but she hasn't given me any new updates."

James shrugged, his brown eyes drained of any energy. "He took a beating, but they said he should be able to leave in a month or so."

"Okay…" She let out another measured breath. "I'll see him the day after tomorrow."

James gave her a look. "Rose-"

"I need a minute…My fiancée's mother… and Kelly's weddings tomorrow," Rose wiped her face to clear the exhaustion from her face. "I just can't do that right now okay? I've always taken the reigns in the family. I can't do it right now. Now it's Hugo's turn to take over for a bit."

"How are you? You holding up okay?"

She opened her mouth, the lie was perfectly positioned on her tongue, but she swallowed it. "No…" She shook her head. "I'm not."

"I thought you were going to lie," He laughed lightly, his face wrinkling. "You never usually answer that question honestly."

"Well," Rose snorted throwing her hands up. "I can't fight it anymore…I've spent my whole life pretending I have it together…and now that absolutely everything has happened to pull that a part…I've realized it's not so important to keep everything to myself. It doesn't make me stronger, it just makes everything…harder."

James grinned down at her teasingly; "Well don't turn into a crybaby now."

"I make no promises." She smiled weakly.

"I'll come by later this week and make him go do something with me." James said enveloping her in a big, warm hug.

"Like what?"

He shrugged, "I'll figure something out. When is the funeral?"

"Sunday."

"I'll be by on Monday then." He told her decisively. "Tell him that okay?"

Rose nodded, "You'll be at the funeral right?"

"Of course. All of us will be."

She wasn't sure what he meant by that, but James was already walking out of her flat by the time she thought to ask. He was most likely referring to the Auror's, but it didn't matter she would see what he meant on Sunday regardless.

* * *

Spinning around, she peeked into the bedroom to see if Scorpius was awake. It turned out, he was. He'd gotten at least five hours of sleep, which wasn't enough, but it was a solid start. Moving into the room, she smiled at the way his bright hair was sticking up. He stared wistfully at the ceiling with his arms behind his neck until he saw her face, immediately he relaxed and shifted onto his side.

"Hey." She whispered softly sinking down into the bed next to him.

"Hi." He muttered, his throat dry and hoarse. "Who was that?"

Rose lifted the covers and crawled under them, "Just James."

"Oh."

She cuddled into her pillow and glanced at him. "Do you want something to eat?"

"No."

"When's the last time you ate?"

He shrugged indifferently.

"I'll make you some pancakes. What do you want to drink?"

He laughed, the expression brightening his face for a moment. "I just said I didn't want anything to eat."

"Yes, but you are sad. And when people are sad they lose the desire to eat, but they still need to have food. So therefore," She paused briefly, "I will make you pancakes."

"I suppose you would know," He said thoughtfully, reaching over and playing with her hair. "Is that why you are always so tiny?"

"Well now that you're back I'm going to get really fat." She informed him.

"Oh? Because you can't be sad if I'm here?" He half-smirked at her.

"Yep. So I hope you are okay with me getting a lot of meat on me. Like pregnant with quadruplets weight."

He gave her a wistful look and said, "I believe we went over this seven years ago."

"We did?" She blinked trying to remember ever having a conversation about her being pregnant with quadruplets.

"We were laying in my bed, and we were talking about whether or not we should stay together."

"When?"

"Seventh year, we were playing the '_what if I…_' game."

It took her a second, but then the memory came back to her and she smiled so wide her face ached. "I remember now…you were really sweet. I remember being surprised."

"_That's _surprising?"

"Not now. Now I know you, but then I still thought you were this cold hearted prick who liked to harass me."

"I'm still a cold hearted prick who likes to harass you." He retorted.

Rose shook her head, "You aren't cold hearted. Not even close."

Scorpius smiled, not in happiness or in despair, but more as an acknowledgement to what she had said. Rose leaned forward and cupped the side of his face that wasn't denting into the pillow. Her thumb glided across his jaw delicately and she grinned.

"_I love you._"

He scooped her up into his arms so hastily that all Rose could was wrap her arms around his neck in response. She didn't hear him cry, but she felt the tears sliding down the side of his face.

"I love you too." He muttered intensely, squeezing her body so close to his that there ribs were rubbing against each other. They only let go when a knock sounded on the front door.

Rose groaned, her lips brushed his unshaven cheek and she got up off of him. "It's probably Hugo." Rose sighed kissing his lips lightly before getting up to answer the door.

Once she opened the door she was shocked to see Draco Malfoy standing in front of her. Immediately she backed away to let him in, unsure of what exactly to say.

The man looked so lost, and so alone. His eyes flickered for a minute to her face, before he swung a bottle of firewiskey to his lips. "I'm…looking for Scorpius."

"I'll get him." She told him soothingly.

"Um…" She paused in the doorway awkwardly, not sure how to explain what she herself didn't understand. "Your father is here."

Scorpius didn't seem to know what to do with that information either. He leaned forward and rubbed his face in his hands. "Okay, let me put some clothes on I'll be there in a minute."

Rose nodded and went back into the living room. Draco was now standing unsurely in front of the couch. It was kind of ridiculous that there was still this tension between them. It had been a long time since she was a teenager, but every time she saw Scorpius's father she felt like she was seventeen again. For those minutes she wasn't a confident adult, but an unsteady kid who wasn't quite sure if they were in trouble or not.

"Do you-" She stopped and shook of any hesitance she had.

This man was going to be her father in-law some day and it was time for her to act like it. It was time for her to just break the boundaries and accept the consequences. So, Rose went over, and gently herded Draco to the sofa. He tensed up the minute she touched his arm, but he didn't fight her. Draco was too startled and way out of his range to fight back. This was not what his life was supposed to be. He shouldn't have been drunk on a weekday in the middle of the day. He shouldn't have been sitting on his son's fiancée's couch, doing everything in his power not to cry, but he was and there was nothing that couldn't make any of that right.

"Father?" Scorpius asked carefully standing in front of his father.

"It's my fault." Draco muttered rocking back and forth ever so slightly, his eyes red, but lacking any tears.

Rose sat down next to him and after a second of wavering she grabbed his hand. She gave him five seconds to shake her off before speaking. "No. It isn't."

"Yes," He breathed heavily, his body trembling, "It is. Astoria…she insisted on going to the ministry…she wouldn't wait."

Scorpius sighed and sat beside his father, his face darkened. "She was going to see Rose to see if she had any information on me. It's my fault. If I had just been honest with her-"

"Then she would have been in danger," Rose cut him off swiftly.

She then moved to sit on the coffee table so she could look at both of them. It was remarkable how similar the pair of them looked. Sometimes it was hard to see any of Scorpius's mother in him, but now she did. They may have had the same eye color, hair color, same face shape, and identical everything, but the look on his face was his mother's. Draco looked disoriented, but still there was something that shut off the flow of emotions from reaching his face entirely, a fraction of it registered, but Rose knew he was much more damaged than he appeared to be. Scorpius on the other hand held all of his emotions in his eyes like Astoria. Every pain he was feeling, was there at the surface. Rose could actually see his heartbreaking. She saw his guilt, his regret and his remorse, but she knew what Astoria would want. Astoria wouldn't want either one of them to feel guilty.

"If it's anyone's fault it's mine. She was looking for me. I could have sent her an owl telling her something, but here's the thing," Rose leaned forward with a calculated breath, "If you look for someone to blame you are always going to find someone that contributed to her death. We can punish every single person involved, and we can punish ourselves until we feel it is equal to her death…But it's never going to be enough."

Her voice was soft, her eyes bore into them and she said, "Nothing is going to be enough to compensate for her death, and it won't bring her back."

* * *

A hollow silence filled the flat as the controlled Malfoy's slowly relinquished any control they had left. Draco uncharacteristically grabbed hold of his son and apprehended him as they cried. They gripped each other so tightly, Rose was a little worried they'd bruise each other, but after a few moments the concern faded.

She stood up silently and went into the kitchen to start making some tea. It was clear they needed a minute together. They were once a family of three and Rose knew that no one would understand the loss like they would, so she gave them the time to properly address that. She knew she wasn't in the way, but still she wanted to respect what once was and not force herself into the situation.

By the time she had came back to them, they had managed to pull themselves together. Rose handed them the tissue box, Draco and Scorpius separated to different sides of the room and acted like it never happened. Rose normally would have laughed at how against showing affection and emotions men were, but she held back. Instead she handed Scorpius a cup of tea, and went over to Draco with his cup.

"I didn't know what kind you liked," She confessed.

"Earl grey?" He questioned.

"Yeah."

"I prefer it."

She smiled and lowered her voice, "I know…well I don't know how this is for you and I have no idea what your feeling towards me are, but I'm more than willing to help you in anyway I can. If you want to stay in or guest room, or if you need help at the mansion I will help. If I overstep my boundaries, or if you want me to back off…just say the word."

He studied her carefully in an expression she was used to Scorpius giving her. "Alright."

Rose turned to go back to Scorpius when he caught her arm to stop her. She was surprised and gave him a second to explain, but when she saw him having trouble getting the words out she frowned.

"What is it?"

"Rose…" He looked pained for a minute, but then let out a little sigh, his eyes locking with hers, "Thank you."

Her heart lifted and a small smile grew on her face. "You're welcome."

As she walked back into the kitchen, tears began to form in her eyes as her chest tightened. For the first time in a long time, she cried to herself, not because she was sad, but because she was genuinely touched by the simple gesture of Draco appreciating her. Mindlessly she began to clean her dishes the muggle way.

"Draco," She called after she finished the dishes, "What do you want to eat? I'm making pancakes!"

"I'm f-"

"If you say you are fine, I will force feed you." She threatened, only allowing herself to be so bold with the distance of the rooms between them.

"Can you cook?" He shot back with a tone of skepticism.

She peeked her head into the living room to glare at him. "Yes."

"Fine, then I will eat whatever you make."

"Good," She snapped back, heading into the kitchen and getting out the supplies necessary.


	12. Turning Page

**1 year later**

* * *

"Draco," Rose scoffed, rising from her chair, "I have to go and I'm not going to argue with you anymore about this. You have to switch accounts, there's no way around it."

Draco scowled, rubbing his worn grey eyes, "This is ridiculous."

"Yes well, you were the one that chose to set everything up this way."

"Astoria always kept up with these things." He grumbled.

"Well further proof that your wife was a saint." She snorted, resting her hand on his shoulder, "I'll see you Friday for the rehearsal dinner."

He gave her a look of disgruntlement.

"Don't look at me like that." She told him tossing her jacket over her shoulders. "You've known for months this was coming and yes it's going to be really uncomfortable for you, but if you want to blame someone blame your son. If he didn't fall in love with me, you wouldn't be in this situation."

"I better get grandkids out of this…"

Rose laughed shaking her head at him. "We are getting married on Saturday. Can you at least let us get married for a minute before you start making demands?"

"I'm just-"

"Don't worry," She rolled her eyes and heading towards the door, "The Malfoy name will live on."

Rose left the Malfoy manner and apparated to the ministry to finish some paperwork. Her son to be husband, was sitting the desk across from hers banging his head on his desk.

"What are you doing?" She laughed in amusement at Scorpius.

He stopped and rolled to the side to give her a hopeless look. "I hate paperwork. I hate it."

"I never asked you to apply to take a year off of active duty." Rose pointed out sitting down at her own desk.

"Yes," He retorted wryly, "I'm quite aware of that fact Rose."

"I just thought I'd briefly remind you." She grinned, going through the stack of notes on her desk. "I just came from your dad's. He wants to know when he will be getting an heir."

Scorpius laughed, "Oh joy."

"Is James coordinating your stag night?" Rose asked nervously.

"He's working with my mates from the states on it."

"…great." She grimaced with a laugh. "Please do not tell me what happens unless you'd have to. I'd rather not know."

Scorpius nodded with a smirk, "Who is in charge of your hens night?"

"Um…I don't know…Technically my maid of honor is Lily, but Lauren is in my wedding party so who knows…"

"What are you doing?"

Rose glanced up, "I'm going to lunch with my father and brother. Then I'm going to get my dress fitted one more time, baby sit for Victoire for a few hours and then go home."

"Is your father alright with your uncle walking you down the aisle?"

She paused. His question was honest and therefore harder to answer. She was 25 and in the past year she had come to accept certain things. One of them being that no matter how healthy her father was he still couldn't walk on his own.

At first it was horrible to watch, but once Uncle Harry retired and they starting spending every day together she didn't notice it as much, but still when the time came Rose realized he would never be able to walk her down the aisle. But it was okay, because her Uncle Harry, after getting permission from her father offered to do it. At the time Rose was quite taken aback, but as the weeks grew by she began to see it was his way of apologizing for blaming her for Albus's death. It wasn't enough, but the gesture alone was enough for her to let go any angry she held towards him.

"I think he's made peace with it," She moved to joke playing with her silver heart shaped necklace, "I don't think he particularly would want to give me away to you anyway."

Scorpius scowled and gave her a dirty look, "Thank you for bringing that up, because I love thinking of how he glares at me whenever I enter the room."

"Oh don't be such a baby!"

"What would you know?" He grumbled, adjusting his work shirt, "You have my father wrapped around your finger."

"You know as well as I do, that you could be anyone and he still would hate you because you are marring his daughter."

Scorpius rolled his eyes, "Yeah yeah yeah."

"I signed us up for next years office Quidditch league by the way," Rose added while she checked off her to do list absentmindedly.

"Oh?" He muttered sipping his coffee and starting on a new file.

"Yeah, I hope you don't mind we are on opposite teams."

He laughed, and gave her a look. "I mean if you want to lose."

"I do remember…Gryffindor winning the cup," She said tapping her fingers to her lips feigning pensiveness.

"Well this time I will have a legitimate team." He shot back.

"Sure you will," She teased.

* * *

For a few moments they said nothing to one another, they just worked on their respective work when Rose took off her jacket. She was surprised Draco said nothing about it. When she woke up in the morning looking for something to wear for casual Tuesday, she somehow stumbled into his side of the closet and she was surprised to see his old Quidditch jersey hanging up in the back.

It brought back memories of long ago, when she was young and refused to wear it because she didn't want the entire school to hate her. When she looked at the engagement ring on her finger and the silver necklace around her neck, she thought she would top it off by putting on the jersey.

Scorpius hadn't noticed. He was too preoccupied with his work so Rose decided to make it easier for him to notice.

"Oh by the way," She smirked, leaning forward, her long red hair falling on the front of the faded jersey, "I'm headed to the filing room do you need any new files?"

"No, but thanks."

"Scorpius?"

"What love?" He asked glancing up.

Rose tried to seem innocent as his eyes locked on what she was wearing. "Oh…I forgot what I was going to ask you…"

On her way to the filing cabinet, a smirk grew on her face. At first the department put them at desks far away from one another, fearing they wouldn't be able to keep their relationship professional, but they proved them wrong. A month ago, when they both switched to desk duty to get a few months of normalcy, their desks were chosen right next to one another. It seemed to be done under the recommendation of James Potter, who just received a fancy new promotion.

Pretending to look for something, she went in the back and grinned when Scorpius flipped her around and pinned her against the back wall. "Mr. Malfoy, you aren't supposed to do that here."

"Ah huh, why are you wearing my jersey?" He asked his hands sliding up the back of the jersey in question.

"I couldn't figure out what to wear this morning and I saw this…"

"You know how I feel about this," He growled, grabbing the back of her waist possessively.

She giggled, "You know anyone could come over here."

"I don't care," He told her huskily, "I will quit. Right here. Right now."

Then he proceeded to pin her against the wall, gripping her and snogging her senseless.

* * *

**Authors Note:**

_Well guys this is it. *sob* I want to personally appreciate every single person who read and reviewed this. You are the reason I wrote so much and updated so often. Without you I would have given this up ages ago, so sincerely THANK YOU! It's been a treat to write and I hope you all go and check out my other work! I'm on tumblr if you ever have story ideas or comments I'm **Siriusuntiltheveryend!**_

**Just so you know:**

+Hugo and Lauren eventually got back together and moved in together.

+Every year on Albus's birthday Rose visits his grave and leaves flowers until her own death.

+Rose and Scorpius eventually went back to active duty, but they also had three children; Helene, Portia and Leo.

_Leo looks just Scorpius._


End file.
